ALBERT  R.  HAND 


PUBLISHER 
CAPE  MAY,  N.  J, 


Division 

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TO 
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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/religiouslegalcoOOhowe_O 


4 


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RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 

OF  THE 

PILGRIM  STATE 


*  ' 


REV.  PAUL  STURTEVANT  HOWE,  Ph.  D. 


Rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Advent 


Cape  May,  New  Jersey 


THE 


RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL 
CONSTITUTION 


OF  THE 


STATE 


THE  FACTS  OF 


EARLY  PILGKIM  HISTORY 


By  the  Author  of 

"'Mayflower  Descendants  in  Cape  May  County 
.  _  ... _ _  ✓ _ _  .  _  _ 


REV.  PAUL  STURTEVANT  HOWE,  LL.B.,  Ph  D. 


Member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society. 

Member  of  the  Society  of  Mayflower  Descendants. 

Member  of  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution. 
Member  of  the  Colonial  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

Member  of  the  Genealogical  Society  of  Pennsylvania . 

Past  Chaplain  General  of  the  Order  of  Founders  am 
Pa  l riots  of  A  merica. 


Fully  Indexed 


Copyright  1923 
ALBERT  R.  HAND 
Publisher 

Cape  May.  New  Jersey 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Publisher’s  Preface. 

Author’s  Preface. 

The  Progressive  Changes  in  the  Pilgrim  Church,  and  the 
Difficulty  of  Determining  the  Exact  Belief  of  the  Fathers. 

The  Fundamentals  of  Congregationalism,  and  how  far  the 
same  were  accepted  by  the  Pilgrim  Church. 

The  Theology  of  the  Pilgrim  Church,  (a)  the  period  in 
Holland,  (b),  the  development  at  Plymouth. 

The  Growing  Influence  of  Puritanism  in  the  Pilgrim 
Church. 

The  Laws  of  Plymouth  Colony. 

The  Patents,  Compact  and  Articles  of  Confederation. 

Treatment  of  the  Indians  by  the  Pilgrim  and  their  descen¬ 
dants,  (a)  early  titles  to  land — row  acquired,  (b)  treatment  of 
Indian  prisoners  after  defeat  of  King  Philip. 

Courts  and  General  Laws. 

Laws  Governing  Conduct,  including  Criminal  Laws. 

Bibliography. 

Complete  Index.  ,t  i 


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PLYMOUTH  COLONY  IN  1622 


PUBLISHER’S  PREFACE 


In  the  published  proceedings  of  the  New  Jersey  Historical 
Society  of  the  date  July,  1921,  a  notice  of  Dr.  Howe’s  previous 
work  entitled  “Mayflower  Descendants  in  Cape  May  County,” 
is  given,  describing  the  hook  as  most  interesting  and  thoroughly 
prepared,  and  with  a  further  comment  upon  this  present  work 
with  the  commendation  that  the  author  is  well-equipped  to  make 
it  an  authoritative  volume.  This  is  the  purpose  of  this  book — an 
authoritative  statement  in  brief  form  of  the  facts  of  early  Pil¬ 
grim  history — the  Pilgrim  as  he  was,  not  as  novelists  and  poets 
have  made  him  appear.  For  the  busy  reader  probably  no  book 
published  so  completely  separates  the  mythological  and  legend¬ 
ary  elements  in  Pilgrim  literature  from  the  historical  facts  as 
this  brief  volume.  The  growing  demand  for  an  accurate  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  early  life  of  the  Pilgrims — their  religious  opinions 
and  system  of  laws,  is  met  in  this  condensed  and  inexpensive 
book. 

The  following  questions  are  discussed  and  answered  in  the 
pages  of  “The  Religious  and  Legal  Constitution  of  the  Pilgrim 
State”:  What  was  the  distinction  between  the  Pilgrims  of 
Plymouth  and  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay?  Wherein 
did  the  Pilgrims  differ  from  the  Puritans  in  religious  belief  and 
practice?  Did  the  Pilgrim  Church  profess  a  creed?  In  the 
matter  of  ordination  did  the  Pilgrim  Church  accept  the  full 
Congregational  polity?  What  part  did  the  Evangelical  move¬ 
ment  of  Whitefield  have  in  the  Pilgrim  Church,  and  what  was 
the  effect?  Under  what  circumstances  and  at  what  time  did 
the  original  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  become  Unitarian?  Were 
persons  accused  of  witchcraft  ever  executed  in  Plymouth  Colo¬ 
ny?  How  did  the  treatment  of  Quakers  in  Plymouth  Colony 
differ  from  the  treatment  of  that  religious  body  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay? 

In  the  legal  history  of  the  Colony  is  it  true  that  the  Pil¬ 
grims  first  “fell  upon  their  knees  and  then  upon  the  aboriginees? 
Is  it  probable  that  Captain  Myles  Standish  courted  Priscilla 
Mullins,  as  in  Longfellow’s  poem?  Were  voters  required  to  be 
church  members  in  the  Pilgrim  Republic,  and  what  were  the  re¬ 
quirements  in  the  Colonies  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven? 

When  did  the  independent  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth  as  a 
Colony  come  to  an  end? 


9 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


At  this  time  of  renewed  interest  in  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
the  student  of  history  can  find  no  subject  of  more  specula¬ 
tive  interest  than  that  of  the  imagined  impressions  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  could  they  in  bodily  form  return  to  the 
scene  of  their  first  years  in  the  New  World.  The  returned 
Pilgrim  would  be  astonished  beyond  belief  at  the  dignity 
conferred  upon  him  by  history  and  the  evident  and  ad¬ 
mitted  importance  of  his  work.  If  addressed  as  one  of 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  he  would  reply  that  he  had  never 
heard  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  he  would  be  amazed  at 
much  that  has  been  written  about  them  and  what  the  popu¬ 
lar  historians  have  made  of  them.  During  his  own  life 
time  no  one  considered  him  great  and  no  one  called  him  a 
Pilgrim,  nor  did  he  himself  suppose  that  he  was  remarka¬ 
ble  among  the  many  who  for  reasons  of  conscience  came 
into  conflict  with  the  laws  of  their  native  land. 

i 

While  the  Pilgrim  State  lasted,  1620-1692,  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  Fathers  of  Plymouth  were  looked  upon 
with  more  reverence  than  the  Fathers  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  or  Connecticut.  The  important  and  lasting  work  of 
the  Pilgrims  was  not  recognized  by  themselves  or  their 
first  descendants.  Hence  the  utter  indifference  of  the  first 
generations  to  genealogical  records.  That  the  records  were 
kept  so  carefully  was  due  rather  to  the  laws  of  Plymouth 
Colony  than  to  any  personal  interest  in  the  subject  on  the 
part  of  the  inhabitants  themselves.  The  writer  knew  in 
his  childhood  families  still  residing  within  a  few  miles  of 
the  landing  place  who  knew  nothing  of  their  ancestry, 
though  bearing  the  names  of  Bradford  and  Standish.  Dr. 
Prince,  writing  in  1736,  speaks  of  the  “  Voyage  of  the 
English  people  at  Leyden  for  Virginia. M  He  does  not  call 


11 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 

them  Pilgrims,  nor  were  they  known  by  that  title  until 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  had  passed  after  the 
migration  from  Holland  to  Plymouth. 

The  Pilgrim  was  more  than  the  product  of  the  re¬ 
ligious  and  political  revolution  of  the  sixteenth  century — 
he  was  the  product  of  the  ages.  Runnymede  and  Magna 
Charta  led  up  to  the  Compact  signed  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayflower  at  Provincetown — or  going  back  still 
further,  the  crusaders  and  their  spirit  of  exalted  religious 
adventure  lived  again  in  the  Pilgrims.  The  discipline  and 
charity  of  the  medieval  monastic  orders  were  exemplified 
in  the  community  life  in  Holland  and  the  first  days  of  the 
settlement  at  Plymouth.  The  Pilgrim  was  the  inheritor  of 
the  political  philosophy  of  the  ages — of  Aristotle  and  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  who  taught  that  the  king  could  be  held 
guilty  of  sedition  if  he  acted  in  opposition  to  the  will  of 
the  people.  The  Compact,  the  community  of  labor  and 
land  of  the  early  days,  carried  into  practice  the  abstrac¬ 
tions  of  the  speculative  philosophers  of  the  past.  “Many 
philosophers  have  since  appeared  who  have  in  labored 
treatises  endeavored  to  prove  the  doctrine  that  the  rights 
of  men  are  unalienable,  and  nations  have  bled  to  defend 
and  enforce  them,  yet  in  this  dark  age,  the  age  of  des¬ 
potism  and  superstition,  when  no  tongue  dared  to  assert, 
and  no  pen  to  write  this  bold  and  novel  doctrine,  which 
was  then  as  much  at  defiance  with  common  opinion  as  with 
actual  poiver,  of  which  the  monarch  was  then  held  to  be 
the  sole  fountain,  and  the  theory  was  universal  that  all 
popular  rights  were  granted  by  the  crown — in  this  remote 
wilderness,  amongst  a  small  and  unknown  band  of  wander¬ 
ing  outcasts,  the  principle  that  the  will  of  the  majority  of 
the  people  shall  govern  was  first  conceived,  and  first  prac¬ 
tically  exemplified. 


12 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


K. 


The  Pilgrims  from  their  notions  of  primitive  Chris¬ 
tianity,  the  force  of  circumstances,  and  that  pure  moral 
feeling  which  is  the  offspring  of  true  religion,  discovered 
a  truth  in  the  science  of  government  which  had  been  con¬ 
cealed  for  ages.  On  the  bleak  shore  of  a  barren  wilder¬ 
ness,  in  the  midst  of  desolation,  with  the  blasts  of  winter 
howling  about  them,  and  surrounded  with  dangers  in  their 
most  awful  and  appalling  forms,  the  Pilgrims  laid  the 
foundation  of  American  liberty”  (Judge  Baylies’  His¬ 
torical  Memoir  of  New  Plymouth,  Vol.  1,  page  29,  1831). 
Yet  of  all  this  the  Pilgrim  was  unconscious — unconscious 
of  the  discovery  he  had  made  and  the  age  long  influences 
acting  upon  him — unconscious  as  we  were  of  the  manifold 
tendencies  hidden  in  the  subconscious  self,  directing  us 
in  this  way  and,  that  until  modern  psychology  revealed 
these  influences  and  made  known  how  small  a  part  volition 
plays  in  the  life  of  most  of  us. 

The  first  clear  acknowledgement  of  the  permanent 
value  of  the  work  of  the  Pilgrims  comes  from  the  hostile 
pen  of  the  Tory  historian,  Governor  Hutchinson,  writing 
in  1767.  “These  were  the  founders  of  the  Colony  of  New 
Plymouth.  The  settlement  of  this  colony  occasioned  the 
settlement  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  which  was  the  source  of 
all  the  other  colonies  of  New  England.  I  am  not  pre¬ 
serving  from  oblivion  the  names  of  heroes  whose  chief 
merit  is  the  overthrow  of  cities,  provinces  and  empires, 
but  the  names  of  the  founders  of  a  flourishing  town  or 
colony,  if  not  of  the  whole  British  empire  in  North 
America.  ’  ’ 

The  cult  of  the  Pilgrim  begins  with  organization  of 
the  Old  Colony  Club  at  Plymouth  in  1769,  and  the  first 
celebration  of  the  landing  of  the  Forefathers  was  Decem¬ 
ber  22nd  of  that  year — the  error  in  the  date  being  due  to 


13 


TIIE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


\ 

a  wrong  computation  in  changing  from  the  Julian  to  the 
Gregorian  calendar.  The  dinner  served  at  half  past  two 
of  that  day  gives  us  an  idea  of  the  gastronomical  abilities 
of  the  ancestors.  The  “decent  repast”  consisted  of  the 
following  dishes: 

(1)  A  large  baked  whortleberry  pudding. 

(2)  A  dish  of  sauquetash  (succatash,  corn  and  beans 
boiled  together). 

(3)  A  dish  of  clams. 

(4)  A  dish  of  oysters  and  a  dish  of  cod  fish. 

(5)  A  haunch  of  venison,  roasted  by  the  first  jack 
(revolving  spit)  brought  to  the  Colony. 

(6)  A  dish  of  sea  fowl. 

(7)  A  dish  of  frost  fish  and  eels. 

(8)  An  apple  pie. 

(9)  A  course  of  cranberry  tarts  and  cheese  made  in 
the  Colony. 

These  articles  of  food,  Thacher  tells  us,  were  dressed 
in  the  plainest  manner,  “all  appearance  of  luxury  and  ex¬ 
travagance  being  avoided,  in  imitation  of  our  ancestors, 
whose  memory  we  shall  ever  respect.  ’  ’  On  this  occasion 
the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  were  given  a  distinct 
place  and  as  a  part  of  the  celebration  drew  up  in  regular 
file  and  discharged  a  volley  of  small  arms  (Thacher,  182). 
On  the  following  year  the  Club  held  a  similar  celebration 
including  an  address  by  Edward  Winslow,  Jr.,  and  on  the 
next  anniversary  the  Rev.  Chandler  Robbins  in  a  letter 
to  the  Club  suggests  the  propriety  of  a  yearly  sermon  in 
connection  with  the  celebration.  On  this  year,  1771,  the 


14 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


accepted  date  of  the  anniversary  fell  upon  Sunday,  but 
so  little  impression  of  the  importance  of  the  occasion  was 
made  upon  the  mind  of  the  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim  church 
that  he  made  no  mention  of  the  day  in  his  sermon,  and 
wrote  his  letter  upon  being  reminded  of  the  festivities  on 
the  Monday  following.  From  this  time  the  anniversary 
sermon  became  a  part  of  the  exercises  of  Forefathers’ 
Day.  In  1817,  the  sermon  was  preached  by  the  'Rev. 
Horace  Holley,  of  Boston,  and  the  psalm  was  read  in  the 
ancient  form  by  Deacon  Spooner,  who  knew  and  con¬ 
versed  with  Elder  Faunce  by  whom  the  Rock  was  identi¬ 
fied  as  the  landing  place  through  information  received 
from  the  Pilgrims  themselves.  In  the  sermon  of  the  day 
Deacon  Spooner’s  association  with  Elder  Faunce  was  thus 

spoken  of:  “Our  venerable  friend  knew  and  conversed 
with  Elder  Faunce,  so  Polycarp  conversed  with  St.  John, 
the  beloved  desciple  of  our  Saviour.”  The  addresses  and 
sermons  are  in  the  formal  style  of  the  time,  flowery  and 
laudatory,  but  because  of  the  loss  of  Bradford’s  manu¬ 
script  show  little  exact  knowledge  of  the  Pilgrims.  They 
are  called  “the  First  Settlers,”  “the  Forefathers,”  some¬ 
times  “Puritans,”  but  rarely  Pilgrims. 

In  1774  an  advance  was  made  in  the  cult  of  the  Pil¬ 
grims,  and  the  increasing  desire  for  independence  led  the 
descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  to  undertake  the 
removal  of  the  Rock  to  a  more  conspicuous  position  in  the 
center  of  the  town.  Colonel  Theophilus  Cotton,  whose  im¬ 
portant  services  in  the  impending  War  of  the  Revolution 
are  on  record,  undertook  the  removal,  employing  twenty 
yoke  of  oxen-  in  the  difficult  work.  In  attempting  to  raise 
the  famous  Rock  it  was  split  in  two  parts,  one  remaining 


15 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


in  the  former  bed,  the  other  being  placed  in  the  center  of 
the  town.  After  many  years  the  two  parts  are  united  in 
the  original  resting  place. 

As  the  Pilgrim  cult  continued  to  grow,  myth  and 
legend  take  the  place  of  exact  history,  and  the  heighth  of 
sentimental  inaccuracy  is  reached  in  the  Rev.  Timothy 
Alden’s  Epitaphs,  written  in  1812,  which  will  be  referred 
to  in  the  text  following. 

Longfellow’s  “Courtship  of  Myles  Standish”  es¬ 
tablishes  the  Pilgrim  in  the  literature  of  poetry  of  the 
world  and  brings  the  light  of  romance  into  the  most  try¬ 
ing  period  of  Pilgrim  history.  The  novels  of  Jane  Austin, 
“Standish  of  Standish”  and  “Betty  Alden”  have  added 
further  fame  and  romance  to  the  Pilgrim  Forefathers. 

Finally  the  organization  of  the  Society  of  Mayflower 
Descendants,  with  the  several  State  societies,  has,  through 
publications  and  investigations  of  the  early  records,  given 
an  impetus  to  the  study  of  the  exact  history  of  the  Pil¬ 
grims  and  the  migrations  of  their  descendants  throughout 
the  nation  and  the  world. 

The  assured  fame  of  the  Pilgrim  rests  upon  a  founda¬ 
tion  securer  than  that  of  the  accidental  part  he  played  in 
the  foundation  of  the  New  England  Colonies  or  even  their 
development  into  the  empire  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  most  important  of  the 
colonists  of  his  day,  and  the  pathetic  circumstances  of  the 
first  winter  at  Providencetown  and  Plymouth  must  always 
touch  the  hearts  of  those  who  admire  undaunted  courage 
and  fidelity  to  the  convictions  of  conscience. 

But  the  singular  sanity  of  the  Pilgrim  in  an  age  of 
unparalleled  intolerance  and  religious  ferocity  establishes 


16 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


his  undying  fame  for  all  ages.  From  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.,  the  laws  of  England  continued  to  increase  in  severity 
— acts  insignificant  in  themselves  were  magnified  into 
capital  crimes,  until  at  the  later  period  of  Blackstone  one 
hundred  and  sixty  crimes  punishable  by  death  are  men¬ 
tioned  in  the  Commentaries  upon  the  Laws  of  England. 
Upon  the  subject  of  witchcraft  Europe  seemed  a  vast 
asylum  of  monomaniacs,  possessed  with  fear  of  persecution 
by  infernal  agencies.  Weak  minded  persons,  old,  helpless 
demented  men  and  women,  hysterical  subjects  and  insane 
patients  with  a  disposition  to  form  delusions  were  accused, 
or  accused  themselves  of  having  entered  into  intimate  re¬ 
lationship  with  infernal  agencies.  So  strong  were  the  sus¬ 
picions  of  this  peculiar  acute  form  of  social  paranoia 
persecuta  that  neither  beauty  nor  tender  age  could  serve 
as  a  protection  (Psychology  of  Suggestion,  Boris  Sidis, 
M.D.). 

Luther  had  given  countenance  to  witch  persecution, 
saying  of  the  supposed  witches  who  spoil  milk,  eggs  and 
butter  in  farm  yards,  “I  should  have  no  compassion  on 
these  witches;  I  would  burn  all  of  them”  (Talble  Talk,  25 
August,  1538). 

In  Scotland  in  1563  Parliament  passed  an  act  decree¬ 
ing  death  against  witches  or  those  who  consulted  witches. 
During  the  following  thirty-nine  years,  seventeen  thousand 
victims  paid  the  penalty  in  Scotland. 

King  James  I.  published  his  treatise  on  demonology  in 
1597,  declaring  that  “witches  ought  to  be  put  to  death, 
according  to  the  law  of  God,  the  civil  and  imperial  law, 
and  the  municipal  law  of  all  Christian  nations;  yea?  to 
spare  the  life,  and  not  strike  whom  God  bids  strike,  and 
so  severely  punish  in  so  odious  treason  against  God,  is  not 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


only  unlawful,  but  doubtless  as  great  a  sin  in  the  magis¬ 
trate  as  was  Saul’s  sparing  Agag .  Two  good  helps 

may  be  used;  the  one  is  the  finding  of  their  mark  and  the 
trying  of  the  insensibleness  thereof,  the  other  is  their 

floating  upon  the  water;  for,  as  in  a  secret  murder,  if  the 
dead  carcass  be  at  any  time  thereafter  handled  by  the 
murdered  (God  having  appointed  that  secret  supernatural 
sign  for  trial  of  that  secret  unnatural  crime)  it  will  gush 
out  of  the  blood,  as  if  the  blood  were  crying  to  Heaven 
for  revenge  of  the  murdered;  so  it  appears  that  God  hath 
appointed  (for  a  supernatural  sign  of  the  monstrous  im¬ 
piety  of  witches)  that  the  water  should  refuse  to  receive 
them  in  her  bosom  that  have  shaken  off  them  the  sacred 
water  of  baptism  and  wilfully  refused  the  benefit  thereof; 
no,  not  so  much  as  their  eyes  were  able  to  shed  tears 
(threaten  them  and  torture  them  as  you  please)  while 
first  they  repent  (God  not  permitting  them  to  dissemble 
their  obstinacy  in  so  horrible  a  crime)  ;  albeit  the  woman¬ 
kind  especially  be  able  otherwise  to  shed  tears  at  every 
light  occasion  when  they  will,  yea,  although  it  were  dis¬ 
sembling  like  the  crocodiles.” 

During  the  Long  Parliament  three  thousand  execu¬ 
tions  for  the  crime  of  witchcraft  are  on  record,  and  dur¬ 
ing  the  first  eighty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
number  of  executions  has  been  estimated  at  a  total  of  forty 
thousand  (Psychology  of  Suggestion,  Boris  Sidis,  M.  D., 
chapter  on  Demonophobia). 

It  is  hardly  surprising  that  the  witchcraft  madness 
crossed  the  sea,  and  that  in  Massachusetts  Bay  (not  in 
Plymouth  Colony)  the  painful  history  of  the  delusion  is 
repeated.  Cotton  Mather  tells  us  of  the  supernatural 
manifestations  coming  within  his  own  knowledge,  and 


18 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


gravely  says  of  the  following  case5  “haec  ipse  miserrima 
vidi.  ”  Four  children  at  Boston  were  sufferers  from  some 
nervous  disorder — their  tongues  fell  down  into  their 
throats  while  in  an  unconscious  state  and  there  were  other 
evidences — to  the  mind  of  the  learned  writer,  of  the  work¬ 
ing  of  Satan.  The  convulsions  were  associated  in  some 
way  with  an  Irish  laundress  of  the  household,  who  upon 
examination  was  asked  if  she  had  anyone  to  stand  by  her. 
The  accused  indicated  that  she  could  not  speak — doubtless 
through  fear  or  ignorance.  Her  silence  implied  that  she 
had  someone  to  stand  by  her,  namely  Satan.  The  con¬ 
clusion  was  so  satisfactory  to  the  court  that  the  sentence 
of  death  followed.  After  the  execution  of  the  unfortunate 
accused  the  children  did  not  recover — until  later  when 
nature  restored  them  to  normal  mental  health. 

Every  descendant  and  lover  of  the  Pilgrims  must  re¬ 
joice  that  no  tragedy  of  like  barbarity  ever  disgraced  the 
records  of  the  Pilgrim  colony,  and  the  trivial  absurdity  of 
the  following  case  was  unknown  in  the  history  of  the  in¬ 
dependent  Colony  of  Plymouth. 

The  account  gives  the  record  of  the  “Strange  Occur¬ 
rence  seen  by  the  Reverend  and  Learned  Cotton  Mather,” 
date  1679. 

Bricks  were  thrown  at  a  house  by  an  invisible  hand. 
Sticks  and  stones  followed — then  a  dead  cat  was  thrown 
at  the  woman  of  the  house  by  the  same  diabolical  agency. 
Most  horrible  of  all,  while  the  goodman  of  the  house  was 
at  prayers  a  broom  fell  upon  him,  striking  him  upon  the 
head. 

In  this  case,  which  seemed  of  such  importance  as  a 
manifestation  of  the  Evil  One  that  it  is  gravely  recorded 


19 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


by  the  Puritan  pastor,  culpability  was  fastened  upon  no 
one  and  no  execution  followed — yet  had  an  accused  per¬ 
son  attempted  to  explain  on  any  natural  grounds  the  sup- 
posed  supernatural  manifestations  he  would  have  been  in 
grave  jeopardy — 'the  extreme  penalty  being  inflicted  not 
only  for  the  supposed  crime  of  witchcraft,  but  also  for 
denying  the  existence  of  witches. 

The  healthful  religious  life  of  the  Pilgrims  and  their 
consequent  sanity  in  the  witchcraft  madness  of  the  age 
are  subjects  worthy  of  our  careful  investigation,  and  the 
two  main  sections  following  on  the  Pilgrim  Church  and 
the  Laws  of  Plymouth  Colony  are  an  examination  into  the 
mental  attitude  of  the  Pilgrims  toward  those  who  differed 
from  them  in  belief  and  their  credulity  in  the  presence  of 
accusations  of  demoniacal  interference  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  Religious  intolerance  and  fanaticism  were  no  part 
of  the  Pilgrim  practice  and  character. 

What  the  Pilgrims  believed  and  what  the  Pilgrims 
practiced,  as  shown  by  the  bare  record,  apart  from  anj 
predisposition,  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  them,  is  the 
purpose  of  the  investigation  in  the  pages  following. 


20 


®tje  flnlitij  mb  uHtnilngif 

of  tiff 

plgrim  (Uljurrlt 


3Wjf  f  nitty  attii  ®ljculngy  of  tljp  pilgrim  fflljurrh 


INTRODUCTION 

The  method  of  approaching  the  subject  in  this  dis¬ 
cussion  is  an  assumption  or  premise  that  the  religious 
opinions  of  New  England  generally,  and  the  Colony  of 
Plymouth  particularly,  have  from  the  earliest  establish¬ 
ment  of  the  Colonies  been  in  a  state  of  change,  and  that 
the  theological  teachings  of  a  particular  generation  have 
invariably  been  modified  or  completely  reversed  by  the 
generation  or  generations  following.  Thus  the  undoubted 
Calvinistic  teaching  of  the  early  and  middle  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  succeeded  by  the  Evangelical  period 
of  the  time  of  Whitefield,  and  this  period,  in  turn,  by  the 
great  Unitarian  upheaval  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eight¬ 
eenth  and  the  first  part  of  the  nineteenth  centuries. 

The  later  periods  are  clearly  marked  and  even  the 
exact  dates  with  the  attendant  controversy  and  schisms 
are  a  part  of  the  record  of  the  time.  In  Dr.  James  Thach- 
er’s  History  of  Plymouth,  Part  III.,  Ecclesiastical  His¬ 
tory,  we  find  the  protest  of  one  of  the  old  Calvinistic  and 
conservative  school  against  the  admission  to  the  pulpit  of 
the  Pilgrim  church  at  Plymouth  of  an  evangelical  preacher 
whose  methods  and  theology  led  the  sober  minded  (as  they 
called  themselves)  to  fear  for  the  cause  of  religion  in  the 
community.  Josiah  Cotton,  Esq.,  grandson  of  the  famous 
Rev.  John  Cotton  of  Boston  made  a  written  request  that 
the  pastor,  Rev.  Samuel  Leonard,  should  assemble  the 
church  to  consider  the  following  things,  relating  to  the 


25 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


preaching  of  Mr.  Andrew  Croswell,  an  itinerant  preacher, 
who  came  to  Plymouth  in  February,  1743: 

“(1)  Whether  a  sudden  and  short  distress,  and  as 
sudden  joy,  amounts  to  the  repentance  described  and  re¬ 
quired.  (2  Corin.  vii.  9-11.) 

(2)  Whether  the  judging  and  censuring  others  as 
unconverted  against  whose  lives  and  conversation  nothing 
is  objected,  be  not  too  Pharisaical  and  contrary  to  the  rule 
of  charity  prescribed  in  the  Word,  and  a  bold  intrusion 
into  the  divine  prerogative. 

(3)  Whether  the  spirit  which  leads  us  off  from  the 
scriptures  or  comparatively  to  undervalue  them,  be  a  good 
spirit;  as,  for  instance,  the  disorder  and  confusion  in  our 
public  meetings,  contrary  to  the  scripture  rule  (1  Cor. 
xiv.),  the  breaking  in  upon  the  order  and  religion  of  fam¬ 
ilies,  by  frequent,  unseasonable  evening  lectures,  without 
precept  or  example  (except  one  extraordinary  case). 

(4)  Women  and  children  teaching  and  exhorting  in 
the  public  assemblies,  contrary  to  the  apostolical  direc¬ 
tions.  Many  other  things  might  be  mentioned  but  are 
omitted,  but  inasmuch  as  it  had  been  publicly  suggested 
that  three  fourths  of  this  church  are  unconverted,  we 
would  humbly  move  that  we  may  meet  together,  in  order 
to  know  whether  they  are  in  charity  with  one  another,  and 
also,  that  the  admission  of  new  members  may  not  be  too 
hastily  pushed  on,  till  we  are  better  satisfied  concerning 
the  spirit  that  stirs  up  people  to  their  duty  herein.  ’  ’ 

Evidently  little  attention  was  paid  to  Mr.  Cotton’s  re¬ 
quest,  and  the  following  year,  1744,  we  find  Whitefield  at 


26 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


Plymouth  by  invitation,  preaching  to  large  congregations, 
and  as  a  result,  Mr.  Cotton  and  eighty  others  withdrew 
from  the  ancient  church  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  a  new  church 
and  society  was  formed  from  the  old.1  Elder  Faunce,  who 
in  early  years  knew  many  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  per¬ 
sonally,  withdrew  from  the  parent  church  at  this  time. 
Sixty  six  years  later,  The  First  Church  of  Plymouth,  the 


NOTE  1. — We  read  in  Cotton’s  Diary  that  the  Rev.  George 
Whitefield,  in  1749-50,  made  a  public  confession  (in  print)  that 
he  had  been  too  free  with  the  characters  of  men,  and  also  in 
using  the  apostolic  style  in  his  writings,  giving  too  much  heed 
to  impulses,  and  having  too  much  wildfire  in  his  zeal;  all  which 
he  condemned,  but  his  admirers  approved- 

Josiah  Cotton  was  born  at  Plymouth,  8  January,  1679,  and 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  il698-  His  father  was  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton,  minister  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  at  Plymouth  from 
1637  to  1697.  Josiah  Cotton  was  ordained  to  the  ministry,  but 
did  not  continue  in  that  vocation-  He  became  clerk  of  the 
Court  of  'Common  Pleas  at  Plymouth,  Justice  of  the  same 
Court,  Register  of  Probate  and  Register  of  Deeds-  He  died  at 
Plymouth,  1756  at  the  age  of  76  years.  His  son,  John  Cotton, 
was  born  in  April,  1712,  graduated  at  Harvard  1730,  and  was 
ordained  first  minister  of  the  parish  at  Halifax  in  Plymouth 
County,  upon  the  incorporation  of  that  town — the  legislature  re¬ 
quiring  a  settled  ministry  before  granting  incorporation.  Like 
his  father,  he  withdrew  from  the  ministry  and  entered  secular 
occupations,  succeeding  his  father  as  Register  of  Deeds  at 
Plymouth  until  his  death,  4  November,  1789.  The  Vital  Rec¬ 
ords  of  Halifax  gave  the  record  of  his  marriage,  9  December, 
1746,  to  iMrs-  Hannah  Sturtevant,  and  the  list  of  his  children: 

Josiah,  born  14  August,  1747. 

Hannah,  born  1  December,  1748- 

Mary,  born  15  November,  1750- 

John,  born  27  March,  1753. 

Sophia,  born  14  July,  1755- 

A  successor  of  Mr.  Cotton  in  the  ministry  at  Halifax  in 
the  course  of  years  was  the  Rev-  Elbridge  Gerry  Howe,  father 
of  the  author  of  this  volume-  The  building  in  which  Mr-  Cotton 
preached  was  still  in  existence  until  within  a  few  years.  The 
older  residents  used  to  relate  how  the  building  was  changed 
from  church  to  town  hall  by  the  simple  process  of  sprinkling 
sawdust  upon  the  floor. 

27 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


successor  of  the  church  of  Robinson,  occupying  the  site  of 
the  former  orthodox  church  of  the  Pilgrims,  repudiated 
both  Calvinism  and  Evangelicalism  and  became  Unitarian, 
as  was  the  case  with  the  first  parishes  in  most  of  the  popu¬ 
lous  towns  of  the  Old  Colony  of  Plymouth  and  Massa¬ 
chusetts  generally.  (Goodwin  606).  Deacon  Spooner, 
who  was  present  when  Elder  Paunce,  in  1745,  identified 
Plymouth  Rock  as  the  landing  place  of  the  Pilgrims,  re¬ 
mained  with  the  Unitarian  party  at  the  division. 

This  continuous  change  in  religious  opinion  has  many 
illustrations,  particularly  the  passing  of  the  dogmatism 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  the  Calvinistic  teachings  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  same  churches  splitting  off  from 
orthodox  Calvinism  into  Evangelicalism  on  one  hand,  and 
Unitarianism  on  the  other,  and  the  complete  change  of  the 
theological  seminaries,  as  they  passed  through  the  differ¬ 
ent  phases  of  Calvanism,  Evengelicalism  and  the  so-called 
liberalism  of  the  present.  Nearly  all  foresook  the  strict 
Calvinistic  teaching  of  former  times,  and  the  professor  of 
theology  of  1900  taught  a  view  of  Holy  Scripture  faith 
and  escatology  far  different  from  that  of  his  predecessor 
of  1850,  and  the  latter  in  turn  modified  the  teaching  of 
1700.  From  the  time  of  the  confederation  of  the  Colonies 
of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven,  in  1643,  to  the  time  of  Whitefield,  an  even  Calvin¬ 
istic  teaching  seems  at  first  sight  to  prevail,  but  a  careful 
examination  of  the  parish  histories  shows  the  same  pro¬ 
gressive  changes,  with  frequent  splits,  as  the  new  opinions 
replaced  the  old.  That  this  was  true  of  the  middle  and 
later  periods  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  Colony  is 
beyond  question,  and  the  assumption  that  this  condition 
of  change  is  true  of  the  first  years  has  strong  support. 
Goodwin  speaks  of  the  hardening  of  ecclesiastical  rule  with 


28 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


the  coming  of  the  second  generation,  and  mentions  Brad¬ 
ford’s  sorrow  in  his  old  age  over  the  lack  in  the  second 
generation  of  the  unity  and  love  enjoyed  by  the  Pilgrim 
pioneers.  (Goodwin  607-8). 2 

The  difficulty  of  determining  the  polity  and  theology 
of  the  Fathers  is  further  increased  by  the  tendency  of  the 
members  of  each  religious  body  claiming  succession  from 
the  Pilgrim  church  to  interpret  its  teachings  in  terms  of 
their  own  contemporary  theology,  attributing  to  the  Fath¬ 
ers  not  only  their  own  polity  and  theology,  but  their  preju¬ 
dices  as  wrell.3  At  the  head  of  Leyden  Street,  Plymouth, 

NOTE  2. — tin  Holland  the  life  of  the  Pilgrims  was  com- 
muniiistic  and  the  common  ownership  of  property  continued  for 
some  time  at  Plymouth  (see  second  division,  Laws  of  Plymouth 
Colony).  Bradford  lived  to  see  a  vast  change  in  the  economic 
life  of  his  fellow  Pilgrims,  varying  from  the  'patriarchal  sim¬ 
plicity  of  the  sojourn  in  Leyden  to  the  division  of  land  and  cat¬ 
tle  at  Plymouth  and  the  multiplicity  of  lawsuits  the  colonists 
became  involved  in  before  the  end  of  the  first  generation.  Two 
of  the  Pilgrim  band  avoided  lawsuits — Elder  Brewister  and  'Cap¬ 
tain  Myles  Standish — 'the  Elder,  because  he  was  too  religious; 
the  'Captain,  because  he  had  too  much  oommonsense. 

NOTE  3. — “Our  Pilgrim  Fathers,”  is  the  claim  of  many  whose 
theological  opinions  would  have  shocked  the  trained  and  orthodox 
minds  of  Robinson  and  the  first  Pilgrim  pastors,  and  is  often 
made  without  reason  of  any  kind,  genealogical  or  theological 
On  the  other  hand,  when  the  Rev.  Daniel  Lawrence  Hughes,  D. 
D.,  in  an  address  upon  the  occasion  of  the  one  hundred  and 
seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Cold  Spring  Pres¬ 
byterian  Church  (New  Jersey),  spoke  of  “Our  Pilgrim 
Fathers,”  he  was  absolutely  correct,  he  himself  being  a  descend¬ 
ant  of  three  of  the  Mayflower  passengers  in  two  lines,  without 
being  aware  of  or  having  the  slightest  suspicion  of  that  in¬ 
teresting  fact  in  his  family  history.  The  majority  of  his  hear¬ 
ers  on  that  occasion  were  also  of  Pilgrim  ancestry,  without 
knowing  it  (see  “Mayflower  Descendants  in  Cape  May  County,” 
page  4).  The  theology  of  Cold  Spring  Presbyterian  Church  in 
1800  was  far  more  agreeable  to  the  teachings  of  the  Pilgrims 
than  that  of  the  First  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  of 
the  same  period,  1800. 


29 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


on  or  near  the  site  of  the  first  meeting  house  (for  wor¬ 
ship)  of  the  Pilgrims,  “The  First  Church”  claims  a  line 
of  pastors,  whose  names  are  given  on  a  tablet  at  the  en¬ 
trance,  reaching  back  to  the  first  settled  minister  of  the 
Pilgrim  Colony,  and  appropriates  to  itself  the  words  of 
Robinson  in  the  Farewell  Address  at  Leyden :  ‘  ‘  He  was 
very  confident  the  Lord  had  more  truth  and  light  yet  to 
break  forth  out  of  his  holy  word,”  claiming  'Robinson’s 
words  as  a  special  legacy  to  the  adherents  of  the  present 
Unitarian  body  worshipping  in  that  building.  A  few  steps 
at  the  side  of  the  same  street,  the  members  of  the  Orthodox 
Congregational  body,  split  off  when  the  parent  church  be¬ 
came  Unitarian,  claims  the  same  line  of  pastors,  and  that 
they  and  their  followers  hold  the  faith  of  Robinson.  A 
curious  instance  of  the  tendency  to  import  a  prejudice  or 
scruple  into  a  historical  investigation  is  found  in  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Prince’s  Chronology,  Vol.  I.,  Part  II.,  page  69,  where 
in  a  note  he  deliberately  changes  the  date  of  a  letter  of 
Robinson,  giving  as  one  reason  that  the  date  as  recorded 
in  Bradford’s  manuscript  was  Lord’s  Day,  implying  that 
Robinson  had  shared  his  aversion  to  letter  writing  on  the 
Sabbath.  Yet  there  is  no  suggestion  in  the  manuscripts 
that  Robinson  or  the  Pilgrims  held  such  strictness  neces¬ 
sary  on  the  Sabbath,  or  that  the  later  Puritanism  prevailed 
over  the  ordinary  customs  of  Holland. 

Another  instance,  which  savors  of  cant,  is  the  comment 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cheever  on  an  unmistakable  passage  in 
Mourt’s  Relation,  reading  as  follows: 

“Saturday,  the  6th  of  January,  Master  Marten  was 
very  sick,  and  to  our  judgment,  no  hope  of  life.  So 
Master  Carver  was  sent  for  to  come  aboard  to  speak 
with  about  his  accounts:  who  came  the  next  morning.” 

Dr.  Cheever  whose  piety  exceeded  his  historical  in- 


30 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


stinct,  absurdly  supposes  that  “his  accounts”  meant  the 
preparation  of  his  mind  for  death  and  that  Martin  wished 
Carver  to  come  to  him  in  the  capacity  of  a  spiritual  ad¬ 
viser,  an  office  which  properly  belonged  to  Elder  Brew¬ 
ster,  if  any  of  the  Pilgrims  would  undertake  it.  The  facts 
are  surprisingly  clear ;  Carver  was  governor  of  the  Colony, 
and  responsible  to  the  Merchant  Adventurers  who  had  fi¬ 
nanced  the  migration,  Martin  was  the  official  treasurer  of 
the  ship  (the  Mayflower),  and  the  accounts  he  wished  to 
settle  were  purely  financial,  and  not  spiritual.  (Goodwin 
107'). 

This  tendency  of  the  later  Puritan  writers  to  identify 
the  Pilgrims  with  themselves  has  continued  in  history,  fic¬ 
tion  and  poetry.  Longfellow’s  repeated  designation  of  the 
Mayflower  passengers  as  “Puritans”  is  an  illustration  of 
this.  The  grimness  of  the  Puritan  has  in  popular  belief 
become  the  trait  of  the  Pilgrim,  and  the  statue  before  Phil¬ 
adelphia  City  Hall,  representing  a  stern  figure  with  Bible 
and  blunderbuss  is  entirely  unlike  the  Bradford  and  the 
others  who  spent  Christmas  night  with  Captain  Jones  in 
the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower^  although  they  worked  during 
the  day.  (Mourt,  in  Young,  169).  So  the  Pilgrim  of  fact 
has  passed  into  the  Pilgrim  of  fancy  and  fiction.4 


NOTE  4. — The  novels  of  Jane  Austin — “A  Nameless  Noble¬ 
man, “Standish  of  Standish,”  “Betty  Alden’’ — are  valuable  aids 
to  the  imagination  in  picturing  the  life  of  the  Pilgrim  settle¬ 
ment  at  Plymouth,  but  it  is  hardly  probable  that  the  Pilgrims 
or  their  descendants  used  the  formal  style  of  speech  of  Miss 
Austin’s  novels.  The  writer,  reared  in  the  Pilgrim  country, 
knows  nothing  of  such  speech,  although  in  Lancashire,  England, 
he  heard  expressions  peculiar  to  Plymouth  County  and  not 
heard  elsewhere  in  America.  To  the  present  time  town  meet¬ 
ings  are  held  in  March,  following  the  custom  of  the  Fathers, 
who  reckoned  by  Old  St^le,  with  March  25th  the  first  day  of 
the  year. 


31 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


With  these  as  our  starting  points,  namely,  that  the  re¬ 
ligious  opinions  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony  were  in  a  condition 
of  change  in  the  early  years  as  they  were  in  the  later,  and 
that  the  writers  of  any  religious  body  claiming  succession 

from  the  Pilgrims  invariably  identify  the  polity  and  the¬ 
ology  of  the  Fathers  with  their  own  time  and  teaching,  it 
seems  at  first  that  the  logical  method  of  proceeding  with 
our  subject  is  to  throw  aside  all  that  has  ever  been  written 
about  the  Pilgrims,  and  gather,  by  long  and  painful  search 
from  the  documents  limited  in  number  the  justified  con¬ 
clusions  which  are  the  object  of  our  labor.  This,  how¬ 
ever,  is  going  too  far,  and  it  is  advantageous  to  our  pur¬ 
pose  to  call  to  our  assistance  the  writings  of  the  expert  in 
the  later  development  of  Congregationalism  who  from  a 
sympathetic  and  interior  understanding  of  the  whole  move¬ 
ment  can  help  us  to  grasp  what  at  first  sight  is  not  evident 
in  the  original  manuscripts  and  records.  Thus  the  nomen¬ 
clature  of  Congregationalism,  and  its  relation  to  the  church 
of  Robinson,  is  hardly  understood  by  the  outsider.  To  one 
acquainted  with  other  forms  of  church  government,  the  ex¬ 
pressions  “The  First  Congregational  Society,”  and  “The 
First  Congregational  Church”  seem  to  have  the  same 
meaning,  but,  while  parts  of  the  same  parish  entity,  they 
are  widely  different,  as  the  legal  conflicts  following  the 
upheaval  of  1800  show,  (Goodwin  606).  The  writers 
called  to  our  assistance  in  this  paper  are  Dr.  Prince,  Dr. 
Dexter  Dr.  Waddington  and  Goodwin,  author  of  The  Pil¬ 
grim  Republic,  all  recognized  authorities  in  the  early  his¬ 
tory  of  Congregationalism,  the  latter  a  layman  of  the  lib¬ 
eral  school.  These  authorities  supplement  the  records,  but 
the  documents  themselves  are  our  superior  authority,  and 
we  shall  be  at  liberty  to  reject  all  individual  opinions,  and 
we  shall  be  on  our  guard  against  prejudiced  conclusions. 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


What,  then,  was  the  polity  and  theology  of  the  Pil¬ 
grim  Church?  The  answer  commonly  given  to  the  ques¬ 
tion  is  that  as  far  as  polity  is  concerned  it  was  Congrega¬ 
tionalism  in  its  purest  form,  but  investigation  shows  this 
answer  is  not  satisfactory.  Dexter  lays  down  as  a  funda¬ 
mental  law  of  Congregationalism  that  “every  church  is  to 
ordain — or  otherwise  set  apart  to  office — its  pastor  or  pas¬ 
tors  and  deacons”  (Congregationalism  136),  and  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay  Colony  this  rule  was  followed  from  the  first. 
In  1629,  three  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England  came 
to  iSalem  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  immediately  submitted 
to  re-ordination  by  the  Congregational  form,  and  this  prin¬ 
ciple  of  ordination  by  the  congregation  itself  became  from 
that  time  a  part  of  the  ecclesiastical  law  of  That  Colony.5 
As  far  as  ordination  was  concerned,  Massachusetts  Bay  was 
logically  Congregational,  but  in  Plymouth  Colony  we  find 
an  entirely  different  condition.  Even  after  the  death  of 
Bobinson,  when  the  congregation  at  Plymouth  could  hardly 
claim  to  be  a  part  of  the  Leyden  body,  the  church  remained 
without  a  pastor,  and  although  the  defect  was  deeply  re¬ 
gretted  (Bradford  194)  no  effort  to  supply  the  defect  by 
congregational  ordination  was  made  by  the  Pilgrim  body. 

NOTE  5. — The  founding  of  Congregationalism  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay  is  thus  recorded  'by  Prince  in  the  New  England 
Chronology:  “July  20,  1629,  Governor  Endicot  at  Salem  sets 
apart  (this  Day  for  solemn  Prayer  and  with  Fasting,  and  the 
Trial  and  Choice  of  a  Pastor  and  Teacher:  the  Forenoon  they 
spend  in  Prayer  and  Teaching:  the  Afternoon  about  their  Trial 
and  Election;  chusing  Mr.  Skelton  Pastor,  Mr.  Higginson 
Teacher:  and  they  accepting;  Mr.  Higginson,  with  3  or  4  more 
of  the  gravest  Members  of  the  Church  lay  their  Hands  on  Mr- 
Skelton  with  solemn  Prayer:  then  Mr.  Skelton  &c  the  like  upon 
Mr.  Higginson.”  Francis  Higginson  was  a  graduate  of  Cam¬ 
bridge  University,  1613,  and  was  ordained  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England.  For  reasons  of  conscience,  he  entered  the 
non-conformist  ministry.  The  Fathers  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
did  not  attempt  to  be  Church  of  England  clergymen  and  Con¬ 
gregational  ministers  at  the  same  time. 

33 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


The  great  stress  laid  by  the  Fathers  upon  the  necessity  of 
a  “ learned  preaching  ministry,”  shows  how  keenly  this 
defect  must  have  been  felt.  Yet  until  1629,  no  minister 
was  settled  over  the  Pilgrim  flock  at  Plymouth,  and  the 
first  to  hold  that  office  in  the  Colony  was  an  ordained 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Again,  Dexter  says  of  the  authority  of  laymen  to  ad¬ 
minister  the  Sacraments :  ‘  ‘  Scriptually,  one  of  the  Deacons 
or  any  brother  of  the  Church,  whom  it  may  authorize  for 
the  purpose,  is  competent — in  the  absence  of  its  Pastor — 
to  baptize,  or  to  preside  at  the  remembrance  of  Christ  in 
the  Lord’s  Supper.”  At  Plymouth  exactly  the  opposite 
rule  prevailed,  and  Robinson’s  letter  to  Brewster,  in 
answer  to  one  asking  permission  to  administer  the  Sacra¬ 
ments,  clearly  denies  that  right:  “I  judge  it  not  lawful 
for  you — to  administer  them,  nor  convenient  if  it  were  law¬ 
ful.  ”  (Bradford  200). 

For  the  first  nine  years  baptism  was  not  administered 
nor  was  the  communion  celebrated  and  though  the  Pilgrims 
were  not  wanting  in  suitable  men  for  the  Ministry,  notably 
Elder  Brewster  and  Dr.  Fuller,  both  men  of  education,  no 
attempt  was  made  to  ordain  a  minister  (for  qualifica¬ 
tions  of  Brewster  and  Fuller  see  Waddington  282-3),  and 
the  ministrations  of  Elder  Brewster  were  confined  to  teach¬ 
ing  and  preaching,  the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  being  for 
that  time  entirely  suspended.  Under  the  Congregational 
theory,  they  had  at  hand  the  means  to  remedy  the  defect, 
but  no  effort  was  made  to  do  so.6 

NOTE  6. — No  minister  of  religion  officiated  at  the  funeral 
services  of  'the  early  settlers  of  Plymouth  Colony,  and  the 
clergy  were  not  authorized  to  perform  the  marriage  service  un¬ 
til  November  4th,  1692,  the  year  the  two  colonies  of  Plymouth 
and  Massachusetts  Bay  were  united.  In  1657  the  magistrates 
at  Boston  expressly  forbad  the  clergy  to  officiate  at  marriages 
(see  Goodwin,  596). 


34 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


During  the  first  generation  the  Pilgrim  church  did 
not  follow  the  Congregation  rule  as  it  finally  developed, 
nor  did  Robinson  and  the  Plymouth  flock  accept  the  logical 
conclusion  of  their  position,  but  with  the  political  confed¬ 
eration  of  the  colonies  in  1653,  and  ordination  of  Cotton, 
the  Pilgrim  church  became  as  far  as  polity  was  concerned, 
a  part  of  New  England  Congregationalism. 


35 


®l)r  Polity  of  tljo  Early  Pilgrim  ffllnurb 


The  first  principle  of  the  ecclesiastical  polity  of  the 
Pilgrim  church  was  that  all  authority  in  church  govern¬ 
ment  is  vested  in  the  local  congregation  itself,  and  not  in  a 
synod  or  council.  We  have  seen  that  the  Pilgrims  at 
Plymouth  hesitated  in  the  matter  of  ordination  to  carry 
this  principle  to  its  logical  conclusion. 


Dr.  Prince  in  New  England  Chronology,  (1736),  Part 
II.,  page  91,  gives  the  following  summary  of  Pilgrim  ec¬ 
clesiastical  polity: 


(1)  “That  no  particular  Church  ought  to  consist  of 
more  Members  than  can  conveniently  Watch  over  one  an¬ 
other  and  usually  meet  and  Worship  in  one  Congregation. 

(2)  “That  every  particular  Church  of  Christ  is  only 
to  consist  of  such  as  appear  to  Believe  in  and  obey  Him. 

(3)  “That  any  competent  number  of  such,  wThen 
their  Consciences  oblige  them,  have  a  Right  to  embody  into 
a  Church  for  their  mutual  Edification. 

(4)  “That  this  Embodying  is  by  some  certain  Con¬ 
tract  or  Covenant  either  Expressed  or  Implied;  tho’  it 
ought  to  be  by  the  Former. 

(5)  “That  being  Embodied,  they  have  a  Right  of 
Chusing  all  their  officers. 

(6)  “That  the  Officers  appointed  by  Christ  for  this 
Embodied  church  are  in  some  Respects  of  Three  Sorts,  in 
others  but  two,  viz.: 


••4. 


37 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


(a)  Pastors  or  Teaching  Elders,  (with  the  full  au¬ 
thority  of  the  pastoral  or  ministerial  office  as  it  is  gener¬ 
ally  understood).7 

(b)  Meer  (sic)  Ruling  Elders — who  are  to  Help  the 
Pastors  in  Overseeing  and  Ruling — a  continual  office,  not 
Temporary.  And  being  also  qualified  in  some  Degree  to 
Teach,  they  are  to  teach  only  occasionally,  thro’  Necessity, 
or  in  their  Pastor’s  Absence  or  Illness;  but  being  not  to 
give  themselves  to  Study  or  Teaching,  they  have  no  need  of 
Maintenance. 

That  the  Elders  of  Both  Sorts  form  the  Presbytery  of 
Overseers  &  Rulers  which  ought  to  be  in  every  particular 
Church. - . 

(c)  Deacons,  (as  in  Evangelical  Churches  today). 

The  power  of  the  congregation,  and  the  insistence  that 
the  Church  is  to  consist  of  apparent  believers  only,  is  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  theory  of  Cranmer  and  the  Church 
of  England  divines  of  the  time  that  the  Church  included 
the  whole  nation.  The  pastor  of  a  congregation  was  some¬ 
times  called  “pastor,”  sometimes  “elder,”  sometimes 
“teacher.”  Besides  the  pastor  and  the  ruling  elder,  there 
were  no  other  elders  in  the  Pilgrim  Church. 


NOTE  7 — Congregational  ordination  conveyed  no  indelible 
character,  the  minister  was  ordained  to  the  pastorate  of  a  cer¬ 
tain  congregation,  and  the  ministerial  office  ended  with  the 
pastorate.  Hence  the  New  England  Pilgrim  or  Puritan  minister 
might,  without  impropriety  or  sense  of  deroadation  of  his  of¬ 
fice,  enter  upon  secular  employment  after  the  termination  of 
his  pastorate  (see  Note  1). 


38 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


The  following  is  the  list  of  pastors  of  the  First  Church 
at  Plymouth : 

Rev.  Ralph  Smith,  (ordained  in  the  Church  of  Eng¬ 
land)  1629-1636. 

Roger  Williams^  (assistant  to  Mr.  Smith  for  a  short 
period). 

Rev.  John  Reynor,  1636-1654. 

(No  settled  pastor  for  thirteen  years). 

Rev.  John  Cotton,  son  of  the  minister  of  First  Church 
in  Boston,  1667-1697. 

Rev.  Ephraim  Little,  1697-1723. 

Rev.  Nathaniel  Leonard,  1724-1756. 

Rev.  Chandler  Robbins,  1760-1799. 

From  this  time  the  record  of  the  Church  of  the  Pil¬ 
grim  Fathers  at  Plymouth  becomes  a  part  of  the  history 
of  New  England  Unitarianism. 

By  1694  the  church  at  Plymouth  had  asserted  its  full 
congregational  authority  by  giving  permission  to  members 
at  Martha’s  Vineyard  and  Middleborough  to  form  new 
churches  and  ordain  their  own  ministers.  Samuel  Fuller, 
son  of  Dr.  Fuller  of  the  Mayflower,  was  ordained  to  that 
office  at  Middleborough,  but  died  after  a  few  months.  The 
mention  of  him  in  the  Plymouth  Church  records  determines 
the  identity  of  the  office  of  pastor  and  teacher.  (The 
word  “minister”  was  not  used  as  the  general  designation 
of  pastors).  “Also  in  this  time  (1695)  Mr.  Samuel  Full¬ 
er,  the  Teacher  of  the  chh  at  Midlebury  a  sincere  Godly 
man  who  wee  had  the  last  yeare  dismissed  to  that  service, 
dyed  August  24:  being  66  yeares  old.”  The  writer  has 
copied  the  inscription  on  the  gravestone  of  the  first  pas¬ 
tor  of  Middleborough;  “Rev.  Samuel  Fuller,  First  Min- 


39 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


ister  of  the  Church  in  Middleboro,  died  17  August  1695, 
aged  70  years.  ’  ’  The  lack  of  accuracy  of  the  clerk  in  giv¬ 
ing  the  age  and  date  of  death  is  characteristic  of  early 
church  records  in  the  colony,  and  the  title  minister  is  not 
used  in  the  records — the  present  gravestone  is  modern. 

The  office  of  Ruling  Elder  seems  an  anomaly  in  the 
Pilgrim  Church,  and  is  declared  by  Dexter  contrary  to 
Congregational  polity,  (Congregationalism  110  et  seq.), 
and  Dexter  further  says  the  Pilgrims  hesitated  to  commit 
themselves  to  that  democracy  which  would  throw  the  whole 
responsibility  of  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  under  Christ, 
upon  the  entire  membership,  ( Congregationalism  122). 
Three  only  held  this  office  in  the  Pilgrim  Church,  Elder 
Brewster,  Elder  Cushmian  and  Elder  Faunce,  the  office  be¬ 
coming  extinct  with  the  death  of  the  latter.8  The  office  of 


NOTE  8. — Elder  Brewster  died  16  April,  1664,  in  his  84th 
year.  He  was  educated  at  Cambridge  University  and  spent  his 
early  years  in  the  service  of  William  Davison,  ambassador  of 
Elizabeth  to  Scotland  and  Holland.  His  library  was  appraised 
as  of  the  value  of  43  Pounds  and  contained  275  volumes,  of 
which  64  were  in  the  learned  languages. 

Elder  Cushman,  successor  of  Elder  Brewster,  died  in  1691, 
at  the  age  of  84.  He  married  Mary  Allerto.n,  who  died  in  1699, 
at  the  age  of  90.  Thomas  Faunce,  the  third  and  last  of  the 
Ruling  Elders  of  the  Pilgrim  Church,  died  27  February,  1746, 
at  the  age  of  99  years.  The  members  of  the  family  were  re¬ 
markable  for  longevity.  Patience,  sister  of  the  Elder,  died  at 
Salem  when  more  than  one  hundred  years  of  age-  She  recalled 
of  her  wvn  knowledge  that  King  Philip’s  skull  was  exposed  on 
a  pole  at  Plymouth  for  more  than  twenty  years,  and  that  a  pair 
of  wrens  built  their  nest  in  it  season  after  season  (Goodwin,  468). 
A  daughter  of  the  Elder,  also  named  Patience,  died  at  New 
Bedford  in  H779  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  five  years  and 
six  months.  Of  the  Mayflower  passengers,  the  following  died 
at  an  advanced  age:  John  Howland,  died  24  February,  1673, 
aged  80;  Elizabeth  Warren,  wife  of  Richard,  died  2  October, 
1763,  aged  90;  John  Alden,  died  12  September,  1687,  aged  89; 
Elizabeth  Tilley,  wife  of  John  Howland,  died  1687,  aged  81. 
Others  of  the  first  comers  lived  far  beyond  the  average  of  hu- 

40 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


Deacon  survives  in  the  orthodox  churches  of  Pilgrim  de¬ 
scent,  but  has  become  obsolete  in  the  Unitarian  body.  An¬ 
other  office,  omitted  by  Prince,  existed  for  a  time  in  Holl¬ 
and,  but  was  never  adopted  by  the  church  at  Plymouth, 
namely,  that  of  deaconess.  In  Governor  Bradford’s  Dia¬ 
logue  (Young  455)  the  ancient  widow  who  filled  that  of¬ 
fice  is  described  as  sitting  in  a  convenient  place  in  the  con¬ 
gregation,  with  a  little  birchen  rod  in  her  hands,  and  keep¬ 
ing  the  little  children  in  great  awe  from  disturbing  the 
congregation.  She  also  visited  the  poor  and  assisted  in 
general  parish  work,  “  obeyed  as  a  mother  in  Israel  and  an 
officer  of  Christ.”  In  the  Church  records  of  Plymouth  a 
notice  of  the  death  of  Mary  Carpenter,  sister  of  the  wife  of 
Governor  Bradford,  suggests  vestige  of  the  office  of  dea- 


man  life.  Alice  Bradford,  wife  of  the  Governor,  died  26  March, 
1670,  aged  80;  Thomas  Tapper  of  Sandwich,  died  28  March, 
1676,  aged  98;  Ann  Tapper,  of  the  same,  died  4  Jane,  4676, 
aged  90;  Priscilla  Cooper,  sister  of  Governor  Bradford’s  wife, 
mentioned  above,  died  1679,  aged  91;  Dorothy  Brown,  of 
Swansea,  wife  of  John,  died  1675,  aged  90;  Phineas  Pratt,  died 
19  April,  1680,  aged  90;  Deacon  Robert  Finney,  died  7  Janaarv, 

1687,  aged  80;  Mary  Carpenter,  sister  to  Governor  Bradford’s 
wife,  died  1683,  aged  90  (she  is  called  in  the  Church  records 
a  “godly  old  maid”);  Experience  Mitchell,  died  1689,  aged  80; 
Anna  Lettice,  wife  of  John,  died  3  Jaly,  4687,  aged  81;  Samuel 
Eddy,  died  1688,  aged  87;  George  Watson,  died  31  Janaary, 

1688,  aged  87;  John  Thompson,  of  Middleboroogh,  died  16  Jane, 
1696,  aged  80;  Mary,  his  wife,  died  21  March,  1714;  aged  88; 
William  Peabody,  died  13  December,  4707,  aged  88;  his  wife, 
Elizabeth  Alden,  “Betty  Alden,”  daughter  of  John  and  Priscilla, 
died  31  May,  1717,  aged  94;  John  Rogers,  'died  28  June,  1732, 
aged  92;  James  Pitney,  of  Marshfield,  died  1663,  aged  80; 
Phebe  Finney,  of  Plymoath,  died  9  December,  1710,  aged  92; 
Thomas  Clark,  died  1697,  aged  98;  Elizabeth  Eddy,  of  Swan¬ 
sea,  died  24  May,  1689,  aged  82;  Richard  Wright,  died  9  Jane, 
1691,  aged  83;  George  Bonam,  died  28  Ajpril,  1704,  aged  95; 
Samael  King,  died  1705,  aged  90;  James  Cole,  died  1709,  aged 
85;  Hope  Nelson,  wife  of  Thomas  Nelson,  died  7  December, 
1782,  aged  105;  Deacon  John  Doane,  of  Eastham,  died  1707, 
aged  .1110  (see  Rassell,  201). 


41 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


coness:  “She  was  a  Godly  old  maid  never  married.”  (Died 
March  19-20?  1687,  aged  91). 

We  are  fortunate  in  having,  from  different  sources, 
two  pictures  of  the  worship  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth, 
one  from  the  pen  of  Isaack  De  Rasieres,  representative  of 
the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  established  at  Manhattan, 
now  New  York;  the  other,  a  description  of  a  visit  to  Ply¬ 
mouth  of  Governor  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony 
After  his  visit  to  Plymouth  in  1627,  De  Rasieres  wrote 
a  letter  to  one  of  his  employers  containing  a  minute  de¬ 
scription  of  Plymouth,  which  we  have,  the  following  is  an 
extract : 


“Upon  the  hill  they  have  a  large  square  house, 
with  a  flat  roof,  made  of  thick  sawn  planks,  stayed  with 
oak  beams,  upon  the  top  of  which  they  have  six  can¬ 
nons,  which  shoot  iron  balls  of  four  and  five  pounds, 
and  command  the  surrounding  country.  The  lower 
part  they  use  for  their  church,  where  they  preach  on 
Sundays  and  the  usual  holidays.  They  assemble  by 
beat  of  drum,  each  with  his  musket  or  firelock,  in 
front  of  the  captain’s  door;  they  have  their \loaks  on, 

and  place  themselves  in  order,  three  abreast  'trod _ are 

led  by  a  sergeant  without  beat  of  drum.  Behind  comes 
the  Governor,  in  a  long  robe;  beside  him,  on  the  right 
hand,  comes  the  preacher  with  his  cloak  on,  and  on  the 
left  hand  the  captain  with  his  side-arms  and  cloak  on, 
and  with  a  small  cane  in  his  hand,  and  they  march  in 
good  order,  and  each  sets  his  arms  down  near  him. 
Thus  they  are  constantly  on  their  guard  night  and 
day.”  (Russell  143) 

Governor  Winthrop,  in  company  with  Pastor  Wilson 
of  the  Boston  church  and  others,  visited  Plymouth  in  No¬ 
vember  of  1632,  and  assisted  at  the  Sabbath  services.  An 
interesting  feature  of  the  occasion  was  that  the  sermon 
was  preached  by  Roger  Williams  who  had  left  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay  after  a  controversy  with  the  Governor  and 
Pastor  whom  he  now  addressed.  Goodwin  suggests  that 
the  occasion  was  not  altogther  pleasing  to  the  visitors. 


42 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


"On  the  Lord’s  day  in  the  afternoon  (the  Lord’s  Supper 
was  celebrated  in  the  forenoon),  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  ac¬ 
cording  to  their  custom,  propounded  a  question,  to  which 
the  pastor,  Mr.  Smith,  spake  briefly;  then  Mr.  Williams 
prophesied  (preached) ;  and  after  the  governor  of  Ply¬ 
mouth  spoke  to  the  question ;  after  him  the  elder ;  then  twa 
or  three  more  of  the  congregation.  Then  the  elder  desired 
the  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  Mr.  Wilson  to  speak  to 
it,  which  they  did”  (Young  419,  note)..  Finally  Deacon 
A.  Fuller  reminded  the  people  of  the  duty  of  giving  and 
the  people  offered  their  contributions. 

In  the  first  days  of  Pilgrim  history  all  members  of 
the  community  were  also  members  of  the  church,  but  as  the 
colony  in  the  New  World,  grew  in  numbers  a  large  ma¬ 
jority  of  the  men,  and  some  women,  did  not  formally  make 
a  profession  of  religion,  or  become  admitted  to  the  visible 
body  of  the  church.  Goodwin  says  not  one  in  four  in 
Massachusetts  were  church  members,  and  in  later  years  in 
Plymouth  the  ratio  was  even  smaller.  In  1697  the  num¬ 
ber  of  church  members  in  Plymouth  township  was  forty 
two  men  and  seventy  five  women,  making  a  total  of  one 
hundred  and  seventeen,  (Church  Records  in  Mayflower 
Descendant,  1913,  No.  4,  p,  224).  As  the  town  was  al¬ 
ways  retarded  in  growth,  and  many  removed  as  new  towns 
sprang  up  in  the  united  Colony  of  Massachusetts  of  which, 
after  1692,  Plymouth  became  a  part,  the  estimated  popula¬ 
tion  in  1701  placed  by  Russell  at  1,206,  gives  grounds  for  a 
fair  conclusion  that  the  white  population  at  the  time  of  the 
church  census,  1697,  was  not  less  than  1,000  ;  of  whom  only 
117  were  church  members.  The  whole  body  of  citizens, 
however,  members  and  non-members,  was  taxed  for  the 
support  of  public  worship,  and  was  vested  with  the  ad¬ 
ministration  of  Church  property  and  from  this  general 


43 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


body,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  whom  were  not  mem¬ 
bers,  the  legal  corporation  grew  up  known  as  the  “So¬ 
ciety.”9 

The  authority  of  the  church  was  purely  spiritual,  in¬ 
cluding  the  right  to  examine  the  qualifications  of  appli¬ 
cants  for  membership,  to  elect  and  ordain  officers  and  ad- 
minster  discipline.  But  the  society  owned  the  property, 
and  had  charge  of  all  financial  matters,  including  fixing 
the  salary  of  the  pastor.  The  church  called  the  pastor, 
but  this  was  not  valid  until  endorsed  by  the  society.  Prac¬ 
tically,  no  pastor  could  come  or  remain  without  the  con¬ 
sent  of  this  secular  corporation,  and  if  the  society  became 
Unitarian,  the  church,  having  no  title  to  the  property,  was 
compelled  to  abandon  the  church  building  and  seek  a  new 
place  of  worship.  In  New  England  at  the  Unitarian  up¬ 
heaval  there  were  eighty  one  cases  in  which  the  church 
was  ousted  by  the  society,  and  the  sum  of  $600,000  left  be¬ 
hind  by  the  excluded  churches  was  the  cause  of  bitter  liti¬ 
gation.  In  a  few  cases  the  church,  composed  of  the  pro¬ 
fessed  believers  in  Christ,  became  Unitarian,  while  the  so¬ 
ciety,  composed  in  a  large  majority  of  non  professing  lay¬ 
men,  remained  firm  in  the  old  orthodox  faith ;  in  that  case 
the  unorthodox  church  members  were  put  out  by  the  ortho¬ 
dox  non  professors.  The  first  case  in  which  both  church 
and  society  became  Unitarian  was  at  Plymouth  in  1800, 
when  the  First  Church  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  embraced 
the  new  theology.  (Goodwin  606). 


NOTE  9. — The  “minister  tax,”  of  1658,  met  with  opposition 
from  the  first.  Dr.  Puller,  son  of  Edward  the  Pilgrim,  was 
fined  fifty  shillings  for  denouncing  the  law,  saying  that  it  was 
“a  wicked  and  devilish  law  enacted  while  the  devil  sat  in  the 
stern.”  In  1669  Arthur  Howland  was  brought  before  the  Court 
for  failure  to  pay  his  minister  tax. 


®l)f  Shrnlngy  of  tl?o  Pilgrim  ffilytrrh 


The  subject  divides  itself  into  two  heads:  (1)  the  pe¬ 
riod  of  the  sojourn  in  Holland,  (2)  the  development  at 
Plymouth. 

The  theology  of  the  independent  congregation  at  Ley¬ 
den  was  that  of  the  pastor,  John  Robinson,  not  the  ex¬ 
travagance  of  the  other  separatist  congregations  in  Ams¬ 
terdam  and  England,  each  independent  of  the  OiAer,  and 
following  leaders  of  conflicting  opinions.  The  Tilgrims 
must  not  be  held  responsible  for  the  extremes  of  the  other 
bodies  of  separatists. 

At  the  time  of  the  effort  to  obtain  royal  sanction  for 
the  proposed  migration  to  America,  The  Seven  Articles 
signed  by  Robinson  and  Brewster  place  their  belief  upon  a 
broad  and  charitable  basis,  and  is  in  marked  contrast  to 
the  extravagances  of  those  who  held  that  the  old  faith  was 
entirely,  at  least  in  administration,  anti-Christ.  In  1571 
the  congregation  of  Richard  Fitz  (executed  under  the  laws 
against  non-conformity)  set  forth  a  statement  of  their 
faith:  “We  whom  God  hath  separated  from  the  churches 
of  England,  and  from  the  mingled  and  false  worship 
therein  used;  out  of  the  assemblies  the  Lord  our  only  Sa¬ 
viour  hath  called  us — saying,  ‘come  out  from  among  them, 
and  separate  yourselves  from  them,  and  touch  no  unclean 

thing/  (2  Cor.  vi,  17,  18.) - Some  of  the  clergy,  through 

their  pomp  and  covetousness,  have  brought  the  gospel  of 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  into  such  slander  and  contempt, 
that  men  do  think,  for  the  most  part,  that  the  papists 
use  and  hold  a  better  religion  than  those  which  call  them- 


47 


THE  BELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


selves  Christians,  ‘and  are  not  but  do  lie.’  Rev.  iii.  9.  The 
Holy  Ghost  saith  ‘I  beheld  another  beast  coming  out  of  the 
earth,  which  had  two  horns  like  the  Lamb.’  So  this  secret 
and  disguised  Antechrist,  to  wit,  this  canon  law”  (Wad- 
dington  18).  This  is  a  typical  expression  of  the  separa¬ 
tists  opinion  of  the  time,  and  doubtless  these  words  and 
applications  of  Scripture  are  the  products  of  long  contin¬ 
ued  injustice  and  oppression,  but  in  spirit  they  are  entirely 
different  from  the  charity  shown  in  the  document  signed 
by  Robinson  and  Brewster  of  the  Pilgrim  band  forty-six 
years  later : — 

Seven  articles  which  the  church  of  Leyden  sent  to  the 
council  of  England,  to  be  considered  of  in  respect  of  their 
judgments  occasioned  about  their  going  to  Virginia: 

1.  To  the  confession  of  faith  published  in  the  name 
of  the  church  of  England,  and  to  every  article  thereof  we 
do,  with  the  reformed  churches  where  we  live,  and  also 
elswhere  assent  wholly. 

2.  As  we  do  acknowledge  the  doctrine  of  faith  there 
taught,  so  do  we  the  fruits  and  effects  of  the  same  doc¬ 
trine,  to  the  begetting  of  saving  faith  in  thousands  in  the 
land  (conformists  and  reformists),  as  they  are  called,  with 
whom  also,  as  with  our  brethren,  we  do  desire  to  keep  spir¬ 
itual  communion  in  peace,  and  will  practice  in  our  parts 
all  lawful  things. 

3.  The  king’s  majesty  we  acknowledge  for  supreme 

governor  in  his  dominions,  in  all  causes  and  over  all  per¬ 
sons - if  the  thing  commanded  be  not  against  God’s 

word,  or  passive  if  it  be,  except  pardon  can  be  obtained. 

4.  We  judge  it  lawful  for  His  Majesty  to  appoint 
bishops,  civil  over  seers,  or  officers  in  authority  under  him, 


48 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


in  the  several  provinces,  dioceses,  congregations,  or  par¬ 
ishes  to  oversee  the  churches,  and  govern  them  civilly,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  laws  of  the  land - . 

5.  The  authority  of  the  present  bishops  in  the  land 

we  do  acknowledge - and  as  they  proceed  in  his  name, 

whom  we  will  also  therein  honor  in  all  things,  and  him  in 
them. 

6.  We  believe  that  no  synod,  classes,  convocation,  or 
assembly  of  ecclesiastical  officers  hath  any  power  or  au¬ 
thority  at  all,  but  as  the  same  by  the  magistrate  given  unto 
them. 

7.  Lastly,  we  desire  to  give  unto  all  superiors  due 
honor  to  promote  the  unity  of  the  spirit  with  all  that  fear 
God,  to  have  pe,ace  with  all  men,  what  in  us  lieth,  and 
wherein  we  err  to  be  instructed  by  any. 

Subscribed  by 

John  Robinson  and  William  Brewster. 
(Waddington  201). 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  document  signed  by  Robin¬ 
son  and  Brewster  refers  to  the  Articles  of  Religion  rather 
than  to  the  creeds  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  the  rec¬ 
ognition  of  the  authority  of  the  king  as  the  source  of  ec¬ 
clesiastical  authority  does  not  differ  from  the  Anglicanism 
of  the  time  or  of  two  centuries  following.10 


NOTE  10. — The  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  congregations  had  no 
creed  or  universally  accepted  symbol  of  belief.  Each  congre¬ 
gation  formulated  its  own  covenant,  with  some  statement  of 
belief,  but  the  historical  creeds  have  no  olace  in  the  teaching 
of  the  early  Congregational  churches  of  PI  v, mouth  and  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay-  Practically  this  was  true  of  the  Church  of 
England  at  this  time — Anglican,  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  alike  con¬ 
sidered  the  Articles  “the  confession  of  faith  published  in  the 
name  of  the  Church  of  England.’* 

49 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


In  Robinson’s  Farewell  Address,  (Winslow’s  Brief 
Narration,  Young  396),  he  tells  the  departing  Pilgrims  to 
follow  him  no  further  than  the  words  of  Christ,  to  be  ready 
to  receive  truth  from  any  source,  and  that  “he  was  very 
confident  the  Lord  had  more  truth  and  light  yet  to  break 
forth  out  of  his  holy  word.”  He  lamented  that  the  Re¬ 
formed  Churches  would  go  no  further  than  the  instru¬ 
ments  of  their  reformation,  that  the  Lutherans  go  no  fur- 
then  than  Luther,  and  that  the  Calvinists  stick  where  he 
left  them;  “a  misery  much  to  be  lamented;  for  though 
they  were  precious  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  God 
had  not  revealed  his  whole  will  to  them;  and  that  were 
they  living  they  would  be  as  ready  and  willing  to  embrace 
further  light,  as  that  they  had  received.” - He  remind¬ 

ed  them  of  their  church  covenant,  at  least  that  part  of  it 
whereby  they  promise  and  covenant  with  God  and  one  an¬ 
ther,  “to  receive  whatsoever  light  or  truth  shall  be  made 
known  to  us  from  his  written  word.” 

At  Leyden  in  his  public  dispute  against  the  Armin- 
ians  Robinson  stood  firmly  on  the  orthodox  side  (Brad¬ 
ford  28),  but  he  was  liberal  beyond  his  age,  and  his  let¬ 
ters  breathe  the  spirit  of  evangelical  charity.  “God  for¬ 
bid,”  he  says,  “I  should  need  to  exhort  you  to  peace, 
which  is  the  bond  of  perfection^  and  by  which  all  good  is 
tied  together,  and  without  which  it  is  scattered.  Have 
peace  with  God  first,  by  faith  in  his  promises,  good  consci¬ 
ence  kept  in  all  things,  and  oft  renewed  by  repentance; 
and  so,  one  with  another,  for  his  sake,  who  is  though  three, 
one ;  and  for  Christ ’s  sake  who  is  one,  and  as  you  are 
called  by  one  spirit  to  one  hope.”  (Bradford’s  Letter 
Book  23.)11 

'  NOTE  .11 — Pastor  Robinson,  writing  to  the  Plymouth 
Church  in  1625,  and  St-  Francis  de  Sales  {died  1622,  aged  56), 

50 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


The  theology  of  the  Pilgrim,  church  in  Holland  was, 
Calvinistic,  as  opposed  to  Arminianism?  but  liberal  beyond 
its  day,  and  the  Pigrims  looked  to  the  future  rather  than 
to  the  authority  of  the  past  for  the  final  word  of  revela¬ 
tion. 

At  Plymouth  the  investigation  of  the  theology  of  the 
Fathers  becomes  more  difficult  (and  interesting)  because 
of  the  absence  in  the  early  days  of  church  records,  pub¬ 
lished  sermons  or  even  a  confession  of  faith.  That  a  great 
change  in  the  theological  outlook  took  place  before  the  last 
of  the  Pilgrims  died  is  the  final  purpose  of  this  section  to 
illustrate,  and  in  the  absence  of  distinctly  religious  docu¬ 
ments,  we  must  proceed  by  showing  from  the  secular  his¬ 
tory  of  the  Colony  clearly  defined  contrasts  which  estab¬ 
lish  the  truth  of  our  conclusions. 

In  the  spring  of  1623,  Captain  Myles  Standish  with 
his  army  of  eight  men,  put  down  by  severe  measures  a  con¬ 
spiracy  of  Indian  chiefs,  meeting  them  in  open  combat  at 
Wessagussett,  the  present  Weymouth,  and  killing  with  his 
own  hand  two  of  the  leaders.  The  measures  were  severe 
according  to  our  ethical  standards,  but  Standish,  whose 
conduct  toward  the  Indians  was  reprehensible,  saved  the 
lives  of  the  60  colonists  at  Weymouth,  as  well  as  the  Pil¬ 
grim  settlement  at  Plymouth  by  his  prompt  action.  On 
the  following  December  Robinson  wrote  Bradford  a  let¬ 
ter  somewhat  in  the  tone  of  the  modern  pacifist  perhaps, 


in  the  “Introduction  to  the  Devout  Life,”  show  the  same  un¬ 
derstanding  of  the  interior  teachings  of  Christianity.  The 
above  quoted  passage  from  Pastor  Robinson  is  unsurpassed  in 
•the  literature  of  Pilgrim  or  Puritan,  and  equals  the-  dignity  of 
St.  Francis,,  whose  Devout  Life  is  worth  more  than  all  the 
religious'  writings  of  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  put  together. 


51 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


but  nevertheless  the  communication  breathes  the  spirit  of 
the  New  Testament:: 

“Concerning  ye  killing  of  those  poor  Indeans,  of 
of  which  we  heard  at  first  by  reporte,  and  since  by 
more  certaine  relation,  oh!  how  happy  a  thing  had  it 
been,  if  you  had  converted  some,  before  you  had  killed 
any;  besides,  wher  bloud  is  one  begune  to  be  shed,  it 
is  seldom  stanched  of  a  long  time  after.  You  may  say 
they  deserved  it.  I  grant  it;  but  upon  what  provoca- 
tions  and  invitments  by  those  heathenish  Christians? 
Besids,  you,  being  no  magistrate  over  them,  were  to 
consider,  not  what  they  deserved,  but  what  you  were 
by  necessitie  constrained  to  inflicte.  Necessitie  of  this, 
espeially  of  killing  so  many,  (and  many  more,  it 
seems,  they  would,  if  they  could,)  I  see  not.  Me* 
thinks  on  or  tow  principals  should  have  been  full  en¬ 
ough,  according  to  that  approved  rule.  The  punish* 
ment  to  a  few,  and  ye  fear  to  many.  Upon  this  occa¬ 
sion  let  me  be  bould  to  exhorte  you  seriously  to  con¬ 
sider  of  ye  dispossion  of  your  Captaine,  whom  I  love, 
and  am  perswaded  ye  Lord  in  great  mercie  and  for 
much  good  hath  sent  you  him,  if  you  use  him  aright- 
He  is  a  man  humble  now  and  meek  amongst  you,  and 
towards  all  in  ordinarie  course.  But  if  this  be  meerly 
from  an  humane  spirite,  ther  is  cause  to  fear  that  by 
occasion,  espetially  of  provocation,  ther  may  be  want¬ 
ing  yt  tenderness  of  ye  life  of  man  (made  after  Gods 
image)  which  is  meete.  It  is  also  a  thing  more  pleas¬ 
ing  glorious  in  mens  eyes,  than  pleasing  in  Gods,  or 
conveniante  for  Christians,  to  be  a  terrour  to  poore 
barbarous  people;  and  indeed  I  am  afraid  least,  by 
these  occasions,  others  should  be  drawne  to  affect  a 
kind  of  rufling  course  in  the  world.”  (Bradford  197) 

The  rebuke  must  have  been  hard  for  the  heir  of  the 
house  of  “Standish  of  Standish”  to  bear,  and  it  is  pleas¬ 
ing  to  look  forward  thirty-two  years,  when  the  old  Captain 
wrote,  in  his  last  painful  sickness,  a  clause  in  his  will  re¬ 
membering  a  little  girl  on  Cape  Cod,  the  granddaughter 
of  the  long  dead  Pilgrim  pastor:  ‘‘I  give  three  pounds 


52 


OF  THE  PJLGRIM  STATE 


to  Mercy  Robinson,  whom  I  love  tenderly  for  her  grand 
father’s  sake.”12 

It  is  painful  to  turn  from  the  words  of  Robinson,  to 
the  utterances  of  the  leaders  of  thought  in  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colonies  at  the  close  of  King  Philip’s 
War  in  1676.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Increase  Mather  says  the  col¬ 
onists  prayed  a  bullet  into  Philip’s  heart.  “We  have 
heard,”  he  says,  “of  two  and  twenty  Indian  captains, 
slain  all  of  them,  brought  down  to  hell  in  one  day.” 
When  a  bullet  dashed  out  the  brains  of  a  blaspheming 
chief,  Mather  says  “his  cursed  soul  was  in  a  moment  sent 
amongst  the  devils  and  blasphemers  in  hell  forever.” 
Twenty-four  years  after,  Mather  took  off  the  jaw  from 
Philip’s  exposed  head  at  Plymouth,  and  he  gloats  over  the 
hand  which  performed  the  barbarous  act.  (Thaclier 
391).  While  Mather  was  not  of  Plymouth  Colony,13  his 


•NOTE  12 — The  Mayflower  brought  to  Plymouth  the 
younger  and  stronger  of  the  Leyden  congregation.  It  was  a 
migration  of  young  people,  and  the  popular  representation  of 
the  aged  Elder  and  hits  venerable  companions  is  misleading. 
Elder  Brewster  was  55,  (Standish  36,  Bradford  35;  of  the  total 
numlber  of  passengers  eighteen  were  women,  nine  were  ser¬ 
vants,  probably  minors;  thirty-three  were  children,  of  whom 
twenty-two  were  iboys  and  eleven  girls  (see  “Mayflower 
Descendants  in  Cape  May  County,”  page  71).  Pastor  Robinson 
did  not  join  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  and  died  at  Leyden  in 
1625,  the  sad  news  of  his  death  being  brought  from  England 
by  Myles  iStanidish  upon  the  Captain’s  return  from  a  voyage 
made  in  the  interest  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony. 

Isaac  Robinson,  son  of  the  pastor,  came  to  Plymouth  in 
1631  and  subsequently  removed  to  Cape  Cod.  He  married  in 
1636  Margaret  Handford,  and  had  the  following  children:  John, 
Isaac,  Israel,  Jacob,  ^Susanna,  Fear  and  Mercy,  the  latter  men¬ 
tioned  in  the  will  of  .Standish. 

NOTE  13. — Richard  Mather,  father  of  Increase,  came  to 
Boston  in  the  ship  “James,”  in  1635,  and  became  pastor  at 
Dartmouth,  where  he  died  in  1669.  He  married  the  widow  of 
the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  and  his  son  Increase  married  her  daugh¬ 
ter.  The  son  of  this  marriage  was  named  Cotton  Mather. 

53 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


expressions  are  in  keeping  with  the  conduct  toward  the 
Indian  prisoners  of  the  Pilgrim  descendants  and  success¬ 
ors  at  Plymouth.  At  the  Pilgrim  town  the  question  of 
the  disposal  of  the  innocent  son  of  Philip  was  referred  to 
the  advice  of  the  clergy.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Cotton  of  Plym- 
outh?  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Arnold  of  Marshfield,  both  agreed 
that  the  hoy  shared  in  the  guilt  of  his  father,  and  might 
be  “adjudged  to  death,  as  to  us  seems  evident  by  the  scrip¬ 
ture  instances  of  Saul,  Achan,  Haman.  ’  ’  Mather,  of 
course,  approved  of  his  execution,  and  advises  what  course 
David  would  have  taken,  had  he  caught  Hadacl,  whom  he 
calls  the  son  of  the  Chief  Sachem  of  the  Edomites. 

A  bright  spot  in  the  darkness  of  the  time  is  found  in 
the  opinion  of  the  Rev.  James  Keith,  of  Bridgewater,  who 
in  a  letter  to  Cotton  counsels  humanity ?  finding  difficulty, 
at  that  time  of  belief  in  literal  inspiration,  with  Psalms 
137 :8,  9.  No  quotation  or  reference  to  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  is  made  by  either  of  the  four  ministers  mentioned. 


On  September  15,  1682,  Ootton  Mather  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  “ye  Aged  and  Beloved  Mr.  John  Higginson: 

“There  is  now  at  sea  a  ship  called  the  Welcome,  which 
has  on  board  an  hundred  or  more  of  the  heretics  and  malignants 
called  Quakers,  with  W.  Penn,  who  is  the  chief  scamp,  at  the 
head  of  them. 

“The  general  court  has  accordingly  given  secret  orders  to 
Master  Malachi  Hiuscott,  of  the  brig  Porooise,  to  waylay  the 
said  Welcome,  slyly,  as  near  the  Cape  of  Cod  as  may  be,  and 
make  captive  the  said  Penn  and  his  ungodly  crew,  iso  that  the 
Lord  may  be  glorified,  and  not  mocked  on  the  soil  of  this  new 
country  with  the  heathen  worship  of  these  people.  Much  spoil 
can  be  made  by  (Sellinp*  the  whole  lot  to  Bafibadoes,  where  slaves 
fetch  good  prices  in  rum  and  sugar,  and  we  shall  not  only  do 
the  Lord  great  service  by  punishing  the  wicked,  but  we  shall 
make  great  good  for  his  minister  and  people. 

“Master  Husoott  feels  hopeful,  and  I  shall  set  down  the 
news  when  the  ship  comes  back. 

“Yours  in  ye  bowels  of  Christ, 

COTTON  MATHER.” 


54 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


The  boy  was  finally  sold  into  slavery,  the  opinion  of  the 
laity  probably  being  more  liberal  than  that  of  the  clergy. 

“The  question  thus  seriously  agitated  would  not.  in 
modern  times,  occur  in  any  nation  in  Christendom.  Prin¬ 
ciples  of  public  law,  sentiments  of  humanity,  the  mild  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  gospel^  in  preference  to  the  Jewish  dispensa¬ 
tion,  so  much  regarded  by  our  ancestors  in  their  delibera¬ 
tions  and  decisions,  would  forbid  the  thought  of  inflicting 
punishment  on  children  for  the  offences  of  a  parent.” 
(Judge  Davis,  quoted  in  Thacher  397,  date  1835.) 

The  view  point  had  entirely  changed  since  the  time  of 
Robinson,  Brewster,  Bradford  and  Standish,  and  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  Plymouth  was  now  that  of  the  Old  Testament, 
rather  than  that  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

In  1624  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  the 
Rev.  John  Lyford?  was  sent  by  the  Adventurers  to  fill  the 
pastoral  office  at  Plymouth.  Like  the  first  clergymen  at 
Massachusetts  Bay,  he  was  willing  to  repudiate  his  ordina¬ 
tion,  and  submit  to  re-ordination  at  the  hands  of  the  lay 
members  of  the  Pilgrim  congregation,  but  the  Pilgrims  did 
not  require  this,  and  accepted  him  on  trial  as  a  candidate 
for  the  ministerial  charge.  It  soon  developed  that  the 
pretended  convert  was  a  spy  in  the  service  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Colony,  and  was  utterly  unworthy  of  the  pastoral 
office.  In  open  court,  before  the  whole  colony,  he  was 
convicted  of  intercepting  official  correspondence  of  the 
colony,  and  aiding  an  attempt  to  discredit  and  overthrow 
the  Pilgrim  undertaking.  The  evidence  was  so  conclusive 
that  the  Pilgrims  were  justified  in  the  sentence  of  expul¬ 
sion  from  their  number.  Moved,  however,  by  considera¬ 
tion  for  his  wife  and  four  children,  the  discredited  clergy¬ 
man  was  allowed  to  remain  for  six  months  and  in  the  mean 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


time  made  a  public  confession  of  his  misconduct. 

“That  he  had  don  very  evill,  and  slanderously 
abused  them;  and  thinking  most  of  ye  people  would 
take  parte  with  him,  he  thought  to  cary  all  by  violence 

and  strong  hand  against  them.  - and  if  God 

should  make  him  avcacabund  in  ye  earth,  as  was 
Caine,  it  was  but  just,  for  he  had  sined  in  envie  & 
malice  against  his  brethren  as  he  did.”  (Bradford 
220). 

The  developments  of  the  next  few  weeks  show  the  re- 
ligous  character  and  evangelical  charity  of  the  Pilgrims  in 
a  striking  degree.  Not  only  was  Lyford’s  repentance  ac¬ 
cepted  by  the  congregation  but  he  was  received  again  as 
a  member,  and  permitted  to  exercise  the  pastoral  office, 
“admitting  to  teach  among  them  as  before,”  Deacon  Full¬ 
er  and  others  being  ready  to  fall  upon  their  knees  to  have 
his  censure  removed. 

A  second  time  the  unworthy  minister  was  convicted  of 
conspiring  against  his  protectors,  and  evidence  of  immor¬ 
al  conduct  was  added,  yet  the  Pilgrims  continued  to  sup¬ 
port  him  and  his  family  during  the  winter.14 

The  text,  “How  oft  shall  my  brother  sin  against  me, 
and  I  forgive  him?”  (Matt.18 :21, )  was  never  taken 
more  literally  than  by  the  Fathers  at  Plymouth,  and  the 
motive  of  their  treatment  of  Lyford  is  founded  upon  the 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament. 


NOTE  14. — Lyford’s  letters  accused  the  Pilgrim  Church  of 
refusing  to  allow  those  who  differed  from  the  accepted  stand¬ 
ards  of  belief  of  the  Pilgrims  to  live  among  them.  “If  ther 
(ome  over  any  honest  men  that  are  not  of  ye  separation  they 
will  quickly  distaste  them;  the  church  would  have  none  to 
live  hear  but  themselves”  (Bradford,  221).  Bradford  asserted 
in  his  answer  the  liberal  attitude  of  Plymouth.  “They  willing 
&  desirous  vt  any  honest  men  may  live  with  them — they  had 
many  of  them  (not  of  the  separation)  that  the"  liked  well  of, 
and  were  glad  of  their  company;  and  should  be  of  any  such 
like  that  should  come  amongst  them  (Bradford,  213). 

56 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


Grave  offences  against  society  and  religion  had  brok¬ 
en  out  in  Massachusetts  Bay  by  1642,  and  Bradford  writes 
with  sorrow  that  at  Plymouth  the  death  penalty  was,  in 
one  case,  administered  for  an  offence  of  this  nature.  Gov¬ 
ernor  Bellingham  of  Massachusetts,  in  this  situation,  re¬ 
quested  the  opinion  of  the  ministers  of  Plymouth  Colony 
as  to  the  justification  of  the  extreme  penalty.  The  re¬ 
plies  of  the  Rev.  John  Raynor,  Plymouth,  Rev.  Chas. 
Chauncy,  Situate,  and  the  Rev.  Ralph  Partridge,  Dux- 
bury,  are  given  in  Bradford’s  History,  and  the  quota¬ 
tions  from  the  Scriptures  illustrate  the  theological  opin¬ 
ions  of  the  time.  Mr.  Raynor’s  answer  contains  21  quota¬ 
tions  from  the  scriptures,  19  from  the  Old  Testament,  2 
only  from  the  New.  Rev.  Mr.  Chauncy ’s  answer  includes 
41  quotations,  36  from  the  Old,  5  from  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  Rev.  Mr.  Partridge  does  not  in  his  5  quotations  in¬ 
clude  one  from  the  New  Testament. 

The  references  to  the  New  Testament,  are  a  confirma¬ 
tion  of  the  Levitical  law,  without  appeal  to  the  special 
teachings  of  Christ.  The  ministers  quoted  were  not  of 
Pilgrim  stock,  but  were  of  English  Puritan  training. 

After  the  death  of  Bradford,  Standish  and  Brewster, 
the  laws  grew  more  severe  until  in  1659,  fines  were  im¬ 
posed  for  neglect  of  public  worship  and  for  attending 
Quaker  meetings  or  giving  shelter  to  a  foreign  Quaker. 
Enough  of  the  old  liberal  sentiment  prevailed,  however,  so 
that  the  illiberal  laws  were  not  rigidly  enforced,  and  the 
constables  connived  at  the  efforts  of  citizens  who  sought 
to  protect  their  Quaker  neighbors.  (Goodwin  487).  It 
is  painful  to  write  that  the  romantic  John  Alden  became 
one  of  the  foremost  in  enforcing  the  severe  laws,  and  the 
reason  of  his  decline  from  liberality  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  he  had  not  in  his  youth  come  under  the  liberalizing 


57 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


influence  of  the  sojourn  in  Holland,  having  joined  the 
Pilgrim  band  on  the  English  coast.  The  strictness  and 
severity  of  Plymouth  Colony  came  from  the  Puritans  of 
England  and  Massachusetts  Bay,  until  with  the  passing  of 
the  old  Pilgrim  leaders,  the  liberality  of  the  Pilgrim  was 
superseded  by  the  sternness  of  the  Puritan.15 

The  change  in  the  religious  point  of  view  is  further 
illustrated  by  the  Christian  or  “given”  names  of  the  suc¬ 
ceeding  generations  of  Pilgrim  descendants.  Of  the  or¬ 
iginal  104  Mayflower  passengers,  a  few  only  bore  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  names;  14  bore  the  name  of  John,  8  William,  4 
Thomas — besides  names  of  local  import,  like  Peregrine  and 
Oceanus,  they  are  the  familiar  pre-puritan  names  of  Eng¬ 
land:  Francis,  Edward,  Peter,  James,  Stephen,  Henry, 
Bartholomew,  Robert,  Myles?  Richard,  Edmund,  Christo¬ 
pher,  Joseph,  Roger,  Gilbert,  Gyles,  Degory,  with  the 
Samuels  of  the  Fuller  family,  and  Isaac,  Moses  and  Solo¬ 
mon  appearing  once  each.  “Wrestling”  and  Love  Brew- 


NOTE  15. — The  clergy  of  Massachusetts  Bav  were  intoler¬ 
ant  from  the  first.  Upon  their  arrival  William  Blackstone  was 
the  sole  inhabitant  of  the  present  site  of  Boston.  He  was  a 
graduate  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  and  an  ordained 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  who  had  left  his  native 
country  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  the  lords-bishops.  After  the 
arrival  of  the  Puritans  he  left  Boston  “to  escape  the  tyranny 
of  the  lords — forethern.” 

John  Cotton,  the  Puritan  pastor  at  Boston  declared  that 
the  first  colonists  of  Massachusetts  Bay  did  not  separate  from 
the  Church  of  England — “neither  was  our  departure  from  the 
parishional  congregations  in  England  a  separation  from  them 
as  no  churches,  but  rather  a  secession  from  the  corruptions 
found  among  them-”  Cotton  was  no  friend  of  democracv,  and 
in  1636  wrote  to  Lord  Say:  “Democracy  I  do  not  conceive 
that  ever  God  did  ordain  as  a  fit  government,  either  for  church 
or  commonwealth.  If  the  peorde  be  'governors  who  isfhall  be 
the  governed.”  No  autocracy  was  ever  more  absolute  than  that 
of  the  rule  of  the  ministers  and  magistrates  of  Massachusetts 
Bay. 


58 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


ster  and  “ Resolved’ ’  White,  seem  the  only  distinctively 
Puritanical  names  in  the  list. 

Of  the  women,  Mary  and  Elizabeth  appear  most  often 
and  the  favorite  names  of  old  England:  Eleanor,  Sarah, 
Constance,  Alice,  Priscilla,  Susanna,  Dorothy,  Katharine, 
Desire,  Ellen,  Rose,  Ann,  with  Remember,  daughter  of 
Isaac  Allerton. 

Bradford’s  children  were  named  William,  Mercy 
(Mary)  and  Joseph.  Four  of  his  grandchildren  bore  the 
names  Israel,  Ephraim,  David  and  Hezekiah.  John  Al- 
den  and  Priscilla  Mullins  had  four  sons  whose  names  were 
John,  David,  Joseph  and  Jonathan.  In  the  next  genera¬ 
tion  we  find  the  names,  Benjamin,  Samuel,  Andrew,  Jon¬ 
athan  and  John,  and  in  the  following  generation,  David, 
Bezaliel,  Wrastling  and  Abiather.  Sarah  Standish,  grand 
daughter  of  Captain  Myles  of  the  Mayflower,  (and  also  of 
John  Alden)  married  Benjamin,  grandson  of  the  Pilgrim 
George  Soule,  their  children  were  named,  Zachariah,  Ben¬ 
jamin,  Ebenezer,  Hannah  and  Sarah;  in  the  next  genera¬ 
tion,  we  find  Zachariah  and  Jabez,  the  latter  name  con¬ 
tinued  to  the  time  of  the  early  boyhood  of  the  writer. 
The  names  Ichobod  and  Shadrach  appear  among 
the  succeeding  Standishes,  and  Zephaniah,  Obediah, 
Zebadiah,  Zadok,  Abel,  Eliab,  Bezaleel,  are  taken  from 
the  memory  of  a  long  list  common  in  Plymouth  County 
until  the  last  generation.  After  the  death  of  the  first  and 
second  generations,  the  people  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony  towns 
lived  in  thought  and  theology  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Old  Testament.16 


NOTE  16. — In  no  part  of  America  have  the  Old  Testament 
names  been  continued  down  to  the  present  as  among  the  Pil¬ 
grim  descendants  in  Cape  May  County,  New  Jersey.  While  in 

50 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


On  the  occasion  of  a  solemn  fast  in  1676,  a  covenant 
was  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Church  of  Plymouth,  and 
ordered  to  be  left  on  record  “as  that  which  they  did  own 
to  be  the  substance  of  that  covenant  which  their  fathers 
entered  into  at  the  first  gathering  of  the  church,”  which 
was  in  the  words  following : 

“In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  obedi¬ 
ence  to  his  holy  will  and  divine  ordinances,  we,  being  by 
the  most  wise  and  good  providence  of  God,  brought  to 
gether  in  this  place,  and,  desirous  to  unite  ourselves  into 
one  congregation  or  church,  under  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Head,  that  it  may  be  in  such  sort  as  becometh  all 
those  whom  he  hath  redeemed  and  sanctified  to  himself, 
we  do  hereby  solemnly  and  religiously,  as  in  his  most  holy 
presence,  avouch  the  Lord  Jehovah,  the  only  true  God,  to 
be  our  God,  and  the  God  of  ours,  and  do  promise  and  bind 
ourselves  to  walk  in  all  our  ways  according  to  the  rule  of 
the  Gospel,  and  in  all  sincere  conformity  to  his  holy  ordi¬ 
nances,  and  in  mutual  love  to,  and  watchfulness  over,  one 
another,  depending  wholly  and  only  upon  the  Lord  our 
God  to  enable  us  by  his  grace  hereunto”  (Russell  196). 

Compared  with  the  ancient  statements  of  faith  the 
Covenant  is  limited  and  vague,  and  does  not  declare  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  (or  make  mention  of  that  teach¬ 
ing),  while  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  Election  seems  clear. 
As  a  covenant  the  declaration  was  not  intended  to  be  a  full 
statement  of  faith,  and  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  say  that 
the  foundation  of  New  England  Unitarianism  lay  in  the 


Plymouth  County  the  old  names  have  fallen  into  disuse,  in 
Gape  May  the  prophets  and  heroes  of  Israel  are  still  living; 
among  the  Jeremiahs,  the  Shamgars,  the  Reubens,  the  Memu- 
cans  and  Judiths  of  the  present  generation  (see  genealogy  in 
“Mayflower  Descendants  in  Cape  Mo"  County”). 

60 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


indefiniteness  of  the  Pilgrim  covenant.  King’s  Chapel  in 
Boston  embraced  the  Unitarian  doctrines  in  17*85,  fifteen 
years  before  the  First  Church  of  Plymouth  made  that 
change.  Nevertheless  the  Covenant  is  unsatisfactory  as  a 
statement  of  Christian  belief,  and  the  instability  of  the 
Pilgrim  church  was  undoubtedly  due  to  the  lack  of  defi¬ 
niteness  in  its  doctrinal  statements.  Yet  this  very  indef¬ 
initeness  was  consistent  with  Robinson’s  teaching  that 
more  light  and  truth  were  to  break  forth  from  the  sacred 
Scriptures.  Politically,  the  Pilgrim’s  journey  came  to  an 
end  at  Plymouth — Religiously,  his  pilgrimage  never  came 
to  an  end — he  was  ever  seeking  “New  Light.” 


61 


I 


Published  by  permission  of  A.  S.  Burbank 

OLD  BURIAL  HILL,  PLYMOUTH 
Tower  at  the  right  is  the  first  church  of  the  Pilgrims 


®1)0  i£mm  ttf  flpunttlj 

fflo  long 


®1jp  Eania  of  fUgmoutfy  ©ninny 


The  scope  of  the  subject  of  this  division,  the  Laws  of 
Plymouth  Colony,  extends  from  the  signing  of  the  Com¬ 
pact  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  November  21,  1620, 
New  Style,  to  the  final  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Assistants, 
April  15,  1692,  when  the  Colony  of  Plymouth  became 
merged  in  the  royal  province  of  Massachusetts.  The  pur¬ 
pose  of  this  division  to  present  a  general  view  of  the  legisla¬ 
tion  and  decisions  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony,  and  while  this 
may  seem  an  ambitious  undertaking  in  a  few  pages,  yet 
the  legislation  is  so  fragmentary,  and  the  records  so  late 
in  opening,  that  it  is  possible  within  the  limits  of  this  sec¬ 
tion  to  present  a  digest  of  the  subject.  The  independent 
life  of  the  Colony  was  short,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  one  of  the  Pilgrim  band  outlived  the  Colony.  Mary 
Allerton,  who  married  Elder  Thomas  Cushman,  was  a 
child  of  eleven  years  when  the  Mayflower  came  to  anchor 
in  the  New  World,  and  was  still  living  when  the  Colony, 
after  its  seventy-two  years  of  existence,  came  to  an  end, 
(died  1699,  aged  ninety  years.) 

The  subject  is  of  great  interest  as  throwing  light  upon 
the  character  of  the  Pilgrims  and  early  settlers  of  Ply¬ 
mouth  Colony,  whose  history  in  its  first  period  is  largely 
obscured  by  myth  and  legend — clears  up  many  unjust 
charges  of  intolerance,  and  reveals  the  unreliable  nature 
of  much  that  has  been  written  and  is  now  taught.  The 
oft  quoted  saying,  attributed  to  Bishop  Williams  of  Con¬ 
necticut,  “the  Pilgrims  first  fell  upon  their  knees,  and 
then  upon  the  aboringines,  ”  is  proved  unjust  and  preju¬ 
diced  in  the  light  of  the  facts  of  the  legal  history  of  the 
Colony,  and  the  subject  has  a  deep  interest. 

In  1660  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  fined  Ar- 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


thur  Howland,  nephew  of  the  Pilgrim  John  Howland, 
five  pounds  for  paying  his  addresses  to  Elizabeth  Prence 
without  her  father’s  permission.  There  is  a  special  ro¬ 
mantic  interest  attached  to  this  case  as  Elizabeth  Prence ’s 
father  was  governor  of  the  Colony  at  the  time,  and  showed 
great  severity  toward  the  Quakers,  whose  cause  had  been 
espoused  by  the  Howland  family.1  Seven  years  later  the 
young  man  was  again  brought  before  Governor  Prence 
and  the  Court  because  he  had  “disorderly  and  unrighte¬ 
ously  endeavored  to  obtain  the  affections  of  Mistress  Eliz¬ 
abeth  Prence,”  and  was  put  under  bonds  of  fifty  pounds 
“to  refrain  and  desist.”  The  Court  was  held  in  July  but 
before  the  following  springy  the  two  were  united  in  mar¬ 
riage,  in  spite  of  the  Governor’s  former  opposition.  Brig¬ 
ham,  in  the  introduction  to  his  work,  “The  Compact, 
Charter  and  Laws  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth,”  re¬ 
marks  that  previous  to  1636  few  laws  wrere  made,  and  still 
fewer  put  on  record.  The  law  forbidding  a  suitor  to  pay 
his  addresses  to  a  young  woman  without  her  father  or 
guardian  consenting  was  unquestionably  a  custom  and  a 
part  of  the  lex  non  scripta  of  the  Colony  from  the  earliest 
days,  and  was  recorded  as  early  as  1638. 

The  existence  of  law  in  question  shows  the  improba¬ 
bility  of  the  story  of  Longfellow’s  poem,  “The  Courtship 

NOTE  1. — Arthur  Howland,  Sr.,  father  of  the  husband  of 
Elizabeth  Prence  and  brother  of  Henry  (both  brothers  of  the 
Pilgrim  John,  but  not  of  the  number  of  Pilgrim  passengers) 
were  in  trouble  on  more  than  one  occasion  because  of  their 
liberal  attitude  toward  Quakers,  and  were  not  only  sympathetic 
with  them,  but  were  probably  of  that  religious  body-  Within 
the  present  generation  there  were  living  in  southern  New  Jer¬ 
sey  descendants  of  Henry,  who  still  remained  in  the  faith  of 
the  Quakers. 

In  1657  Henry  was  brought  before  the  Gourt  for  harboring 
non-resident  Quakers,  and  two  years  later  was  disfranchised 
for  similar  acts-  In  the  next  year  he  was  fined  for  non-  at¬ 
tendance  at  public  worship.  His  son,  Zoeth,  continued  the 

66 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


of  Myles  Standish  ” ;  in  fact,  it  is  undoubtedly  a  pure 
myth  from  beginning  to  end.  The  genesis  of  the  myth  is 
found  in  the  Rev.  Timothy  Alden ’s  Collection  of  American 
Epitaphs,  published  in  1814,  an  age  when  Bradford’s  man¬ 
uscript  was  lost?  and  far  less  was  known  of  the  Pilgrims 
and  their  customs  and  laws  than  we  at  this  age  know.  The 
legend  as  amiably  told  by  the  clergyman  is  as  follows: 

“In  a  very  short  time  after  the  decease  of  Mrs. 
Standish,  the  captain  was  led  to  think,  that  if  he 
could  obtain  Miss  Priscilla  Mullins,  a  daughter  of  Mr. 
William  Mullins,  the  breach  in  his  family  would  be 
happily  repaired.  He  therefore,  according  to  the  cus¬ 
tom  of  those  times,  sent  to  ask  Mr.  Mullin’s  permission 
to  visit  his  daughter.  John  Alden,  the  messenger  went 
and  faithfully  communicated  the  wishes  of  the  cap¬ 
tain.  The  old  gentleman  did  not  object,  as  he  might 
have  done  on  account  of  the  recency  of  Captain’s 
Standish’s  bereavement.  He  said  it  was  perfectly 
agreeable  to  him,  but  the  young  lady  must  also  be 
consulted.  The  damsel  was  called  into  the  room,  and 
John  Alden,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  most 
excellent  form,  with  a  fair  and  ruddy  complexion, 
arose,  and,  in  a  very  courteous  and  prepossessing  man¬ 
ner  delivered  his  errand.  Miss  Mullins  listened  with 
respectful  attention,  and  at  last,  after  a  considerable 
pause,  fixing  her  eyes  upon  him  with  an  open  and 
pleasing  countenance,  said,  ‘prithee  John  why  do  you 
not  speak  for  yourself.’  He  blushed  and  bowed,  and 
took  his  leave,  but  with  a  look  which  indicated  more 
than  his  diffidence  would  permit  him  to  express-  How¬ 
ever  he  renewed  his  visit,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
their  nuptials  were  celebrated  in  ample  form.”  (Quot¬ 
ed  in  Thacher  156). 

To  avoid  an  unromantic  situation  Longfellow  repre¬ 
sents  John  as  paying  his  vicarious  addresses  directly  to 

liberal  record  of  his  father  and  was  fined  and  put  in  the  stocks 
for  violations  of  the  increasingly  severe  laws  toward  the 
Quakers. 

Arthur  Howland  shared  the  distinction  of  his  brother  in 
the  liberality  of  his  opinions,  and  John  and  George  Soule,  of 
Duxbury,  were  of  the  same  party.  John  Howland,  the  Pilgrim, 
was  dropped  from  membership  in  the  General  Court  during  the 
Quaker  troubles,  and  Goodwin  suggests  that  this  was  due  to 
the  liberality  of  his  opinions  (Goodwin  507). 

67 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


Priscilla  herself,  in  place  of  the  decidedly  commonplace 
preliminary  interview  with  her  father  ;  but  by  so  doing, 
Longfellow  violates  the  spirit  of  one  of  the  primitive  laws 
of  conduct  and  propriety  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony.  Long¬ 
fellow  wrote  his  poem  in  1858,  three  years  after  Brad¬ 
ford’s  Manuscript  was  recovered,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  he 
ever  consulted  that  document,  and  the  poet  added  improb¬ 
abilities  to  an  already  incredible  story.  The  first  wife  of 
Captain  Myles  Standish  died  the  first  winter  at  Plymouth, 
January  29,  Old  Style,  and  Mr.  William  Mullins,  father 
of  Priscilla^  died  three  weeks  later,  when  the  infection  was 
raging  among  the  poorly  clad  and  poorly  nourished  Pil¬ 
grims;  seventeen  dying  in  February,  and  four  on  the  day 
of  Mr.  Mullin’s  death.  The  romantic  tradition  put  into 
writing  by  the  Rev.  Timothy  Alden  has  for  its  historic 
background  these  three  weeks,  when  the  main  business  of 
the  colonists  was  caring  for  the  sick  and  burying  the  dead, 
in  which  offices  Standish  was  especially  active  and  is  men¬ 
tioned  in  that  connection  by  Bradford  and  Mourt,  and  it 
is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  well-bred  Standish  court¬ 
ed  Priscilla  in  less  than  three  weeks  after  his  wife’s  death. 

The  recent  discovery  of  Mir.  Mullins’  will  establishes 
a  most  interesting  addition  to  our  Pilgrim  knowledge, 
namely,  that  Mr.  Mullins  never  landed  at  Plymouth,  and 
that  his  last  days  were  spent  on  the  Mayflower  as  it  lay  at 
anchor  in  the  harbor.  The  interview  between  John  and 
Mr.  Mullins,  is  therefore,  pure  fiction.  Longfellow  ap¬ 
propriates  from  the  complete  tradition  as  given  by  the 
Rev.  Timothy  Alden,  the  episode  of  the  bridal  party  and 
the  novel  cavalcade  with  the  new  bride  riding  upon  the 
back  of  Raghorn,  the  black  bull.  Cattle  were  not  import¬ 
ed  into  the  Colony  until  1624,  a  year  after  the  marriage 
of  John  and  Priscilla,  and  there  was,  moreover,  no  place 


68 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


to  which  the  bridal  couple  could  go,  except,  as  Goodwin 
suggests,  on  a  winged  bull,  for  the  whole  of  Plymouth  set¬ 
tlement  lay  within  the  radius  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and 
there  was  not  another  civilized  habitation  in  the  Colony. 
The  intimation  of  Thacher  that  Capt.  Standish  never  for¬ 
gave  John  Alden  to  the  day  of  his  death  has  no  founda¬ 
tion  in  fact.  Upon  the  re-marriage  of  Standish,  the  two 
families  lived  as  neighbors  at  Duxbury?  and  the  son  of 
Standish  married  the  daughter  of  John  and  Priscilla.2 

The  study  of  the  records  disproves  the  popular  con¬ 
ception  of  the  Pilgrim  as  fanatics  who  cut  out  Quakers’ 
tongues  and  burned  witches,  on  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other,  the  improbable  words  and  actions  attributed  to 
them  in  the  novels  of  Jane  Austin,  “Standish  of  Stand¬ 
ish,”  “Betty  Alden,”  and  “A  Nameless  Nobleman,” 
where  there  is  an  over  idealizing  of  a  people,  who  with 
great  virtues,  were  in  many  respects,  exceedingly  human 
and  commonplace. 

Dr.  Cheever  in  his  edition  of  Mourt,  1849,  sheds  rhet- 

NOTE  2. — The  student  of  textual  criticism  will  find  matter 
for  reflection  in  the  progressive  development  of  Pilgrim  legend  and 
the  departure  from  the  primary  authority  of  Bradford:  (1)  The 
looseness  of  Morton,  1669,  e.  g.,  his  statement  that  Captain 
Jones  of  the  Mayflowers  wias  bribed  to  take  the  ship  out  of  the 
intended  course,  an  assertion  not  corroborated  by  the  first 
writers,  Bradford,  Mourt  and  Winslow.  (2)  Some  errors  in 
Prince,  1736,  (but  on  the  whole  careful  and  accurate)  and  pri¬ 
mary  authority  where  certain  lost  notes  of  Bradford  are  quoted. 
(3)  The  Epitaphs  of  Rev.  Timothy  Alden,  1814,  where  the  ana¬ 
chronism  of  placing  the  Pilgrims  of  the  first  three  years  in 
the  setting  of  an  established  community  is  added  to  the  im¬ 
possible  conversation  between  Mr.  William  Mullins  and  John 
Alden — the  Pilgrim  settlement  of  Bradford  being  replaced  by 
an  18th  century  New  England  village-  (4)  Russell,  1835,  re¬ 
peating  Rev.  Timothy  Alden’s  anachronisms  of  time  and  place, 
and  confounding  Pilgrim  and  Puritan.  (5)  1849,  Dr.  Cheever, 
adding  further  unreliable  matter.  (6)  1858,  Longfellow’s  poem, 
where  Alden’s  Epitaphs  are  improved  upon  with  further  im¬ 
probabilities.  (7)  1888,  Goodwin’s  Pilgrim  Republic,  a  return 
to  Bradford  and  historical  accuracy. 

69 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


orical  tears  over  the  finely  wrought  sampler  of  Lorah, 
daughter  of  Captain  Myles  Standish,  saying  it  is  the  only 
memorial  of  the  wife  and  mother,  Rose,  who  perished  the 
first  winter  and  lies  in  an  unknown  grave.  The  facts  are 
that  Rose  the  first  wife  of  Captain  Standish  died  child¬ 
less,  and  Lorah  who  wrought  the  sampler  now  in  Pilgrim 
Hall,  Plymouth,  was  the  child  of  Barbara,  the  second  wife 
of  Standish. 

The  venerable  John  Howland,  President  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Historical  Society  (1835)  contributes  to  Thacher’s 
History  of  Plymouth  an  account  of  the  ancestry  of  his 
family,  beginning  in  the  formal  style  of  the  time:  “Un¬ 
accountable  as  it  may  appear,  it  is  unhappily  true  that 
very  few  of  those  men  who  first  arrived  from  England, 
and  commenced  the  settlement  of  the  New  England  Colo¬ 
nies  left  any  memorials  for  the  information  of  their  de¬ 
scendants  respecting  the  place  of  their  birth  or  residence 
in  the  country  they  lef ty  or  any  account  of  those  branches 
of  their  respective  families  which  they  left  behind.  ” 
(Thacher  129). 

The  venerable  head  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical 
Society  then  gives  for  the  benefit  of  posterity,  the  gen¬ 
ealogy  of  his  family,  stating  that  his  ancestor,  John  How¬ 
land  the  Pilgrim  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Gover¬ 
nor  Carver.  When  Bradford’s  manuscript  was  recovered, 
1855,  it  was  found  that  John  the  Pilgrim  married  Eliza¬ 
beth,  daughter  of  John  Tilley  and  not  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Governor  Carver,  and  we  have  the  interesting  illustra¬ 
tion  of  a  president  of  an  historical  society  who  did  not 
know  his  own  ancestry.  Furthermore,  the  supposed  de¬ 
scendant  of  the  first  Pilgrim  Governor  placed  a  stone  at 
the  grave  of  the  Pilgrim  Howland,  with  the  inscription: 
“Here  ended  the  Pilgrimage  of  John  Howland.  He  mar- 


■v 


70 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


ried  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Governor  Carver/ ’  and  for  a 
generation  the  stone  remained,  a  monument  to  the  Pilgrim 
John  Howland,  and  also  a  monument  to  the  fact  that 
tombstone  data  are  not  always  reliable.  President  How¬ 
land  died  a  year  before  Bradford’s  manuscript  was  re¬ 
covered,  believing  himself  a  descendant  of  the  first  Pil¬ 
grim  governor — Young  makes  the  same  error.3  It  is  a  safe 
rule  to  follow  that  nothing  written  about  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  between  1776  and  1855  is  reliable — in  this  period 
the  Pilgrim  myths  arose. 

NOTE  3. — John  Howland’s  daughter,  Desire,  married  Cap¬ 
tain  John  Gorham,  who  died  5  February,  1675-6.  The  Gorham 
“Wast  Book”  states  that  “Captain  John  Gorham  was  a  Captain 
of  a  company  of  English  and  Indians  and  went  to  the  fight  of 
King  Philip — or  Swamp  Narraganset  flight,  and  there  was 
wounded  by  having  his  powder  horn  hit  and  split  against  his 
side  and  wounded — 'and  dyed  att  Swansey-” 

Hannah  Gorham,  daughter  of  Captain  John  and  his  wife, 
Desire  Howland,  married  Joseph  Whildin,  of  Yarmouth,  who 
afterward  removed  with  his  family  to  Cape  May,  New  Jersey, 
where  both  are  buried-  Their  children  were:  Hannah  Whilldin, 
born  at  Yarmouth,  1683,  died  1728,  married  first  at  Cape  May, 
Thomas  Learning,  of  Cape  May,  married  second  Philip  Syng,  of 
Philadelphia;  Joseph  Whilldin,  born  about  1690,  died  at  Cape 
May,  18  March,  1748,  married  first  Mary  Wilmon;  Mary 
Whilldin,  married  17  December,  1708,  Joseph  Crowell;  Ex¬ 
perience  Whilldin,  married  William  Foster;  Isaac  Whilldin. 

The  children  of  Hannah  Whilldin  and  her  husband  Thomas 
Learning  were:  Esther  Learning,  born  at  Cape  May,  3  July,  1702, 
married  William  Eldredge;  Mercy  Learning,  born  at  Cape  May, 
10  September,  1704,  married  Samuel  Eldredge;  Jane  Learning, 
born  at  Cape  May,  15  October,  1706,  married  William  Double- 
clay;  Phoebe  Learning,  born  at  Cape  May,  4  November,  1708, 
married  John  Garlick;  Priscilla  Learning,  born  at  Cape  May, 

15  June,  1710,  married  first  John  Sfites,  married  second  Jacob 
Hughes;  Christopher  Learning,  born  at  Cape  Mav  1712,  married 
Deborah  Hand;  Thomas  Learning,  born  at  Cape  May,  31  March, 
1718,  Old  Style,  married  Elizabeth  .Learning. 

The  will  of  William  Eldredge,  dated  17  June,  1765,  proved 

16  January,  1769,  names  his  wife,  Esther,  sons,  Jehu,  John  Eli; 
daughters,  Hannah,  Morris  and  Esther  Garrison;  grandsons, 
Elihu,  Daniel  and  Thomas;  granddaughter,  Mary  Eldredge. 

For  a  record  of  other  descendants  of  John  Howland  at 
Cape  May  to  the  present  generation  see  “Mayflower  Descend¬ 
ants  in  Cape  May  County.” 


71 


I THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 

Out  of  myth  and  romance  the  true  history,  spirit  and 
character  of  the  founders  of  Plymouth  Colony  must  be 
discovered  by  a  careful  study  of  the  records  and  laws  of 
the  Pilgrim  jurisdiction. 

The  subject  cannot  be  divided  systematically  as  in  a 
legal  treatise  dealing  with  a  more  complete  state,  because 
of  the  elementary  and  fragmentary  legislation  of  the  first 
years,  and,  as  has  been  stated,  it  is  evident  that  many  of 
the  laws  in  operation  were  never  recorded  in  any  formal 
statute.  The  subject  will  be  discussed  under  the  follow¬ 
ing  heads: 

I.  The  Patents,  Compact  and  Articles  of  Confeder¬ 
ation. 

II.  Titles  to  Land. 

III.  Courts  and  General  Laws. 

IV.  Laws  Governing  Conduct — including  Criminal 
Laws. 

Y.  Laws  governing  Religious  Societies. 


72 


/ 


I.  THE  COMPACT 


Patents  and  Articles  of  Confederation 

The  effort  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Leyden  to  secure  a 
tract  of  land  for  a  permanent  settlment  in  the  New  World 
led  to  the  signing  of  Robinson  and  Brewster  of  the  docu¬ 
ment  known  as  The  Seven  Articles,  given  in  full,  in  the 
preceding  division  entitled  The  Polity  and  Theology  of 
the  Pilgrim  Church.  Early  in  the  same  year,  1618,  Sir 
John  Wolstenholme,  a  wealthy  member  of  the  Virginia 
Company  undertook  to  secure  a  charter  for  the  intending 
emigrants.  Neither  the  King  or  the  Archbishop  gave  full 
consent  to  the  undertaking,  but  James,  while  not  openly 
favoring  the  Pilgrims,  expressed  his  willingness  to  “con¬ 
nive  at  them  and  not  molest  them  provided  they  carried 
themselves  peaceably”;  but  as  for  a  charter  under  his 
seal,  if  his  promise  was  not  sufficient,  neither  would  “a 
seal  as  broad  as  the  house  floor.”  (Bradford  38,  39). 

At  length,  on  June  19,  1619,  on  the  motion  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  a  patent  of  land  on  the  northern  limits 
of  the  Virginia  Company  was  granted,  the  instrument 
running  in  the  name  of  John  Wincob,  “a  religious  gentle¬ 
man  then  belonging  to  ye  Countess  of  Lincoline, ”  (Brad¬ 
ford  51),  the  applicant  not  being  qualified  as  non  resi¬ 
dents  to  receive  it.  For  reasons  which  are  not  explained 
in  the  manuscripts,  this  patent  was  superseded  Feb.  12, 
1620,  by  one  running  in  the  name  of  John  Peirce,  one  of 
the  financial  supporters  of  the  enterprise,  (Merchant  Ad¬ 
venturers)  which  conveyed,  with  power  of  self  govern¬ 
ment,  a  tract  of  land  to  be  selected  by  the  colonists  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  River. 


75 


THE  RETiaioiIS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


The  landing  at  Cape  Cod  was  accidental,  and  placed 
the  colonists  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Virginia  Com¬ 
pany,  whose  territory  did  not  extend  north  of  41  degrees 
north  latitude,  and  the  attempt  to  continue  the  voyage  to 
the  Hudson  was  abandoned  because  of  the  difficulties  of 
navigation  and  the  increasing  sickness.4  Consequently, 
the  Pilgrims  were  outlaws  as  far  as  any  rights  they  might 
claim  under  their  patent,  and  were  without  authority  to 
make  laws  or  enforce  them  and  only  nominally  under  the 
protection  of  the  law  of  England.  In  this  situation,  with¬ 
out  authority  from  their  patent,  and  outside  all  established 
authority,  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  Bolshevist  movement 


NOTE  4. — That  it  was  the  intention  of  Captain  Jones  to 
conduct  the  Mayflower  to  the  shores  of  New  England  and  there¬ 
by  place  the  Pilgrims  beyond  the  protection  of  any  English 
charter,  and  that  the  Captain  had  been  bribed  by  the  Dutch  to 
betray  his  trust,  is  the  statement  of  Morton  in  the  “Memorial.” 
— “But  some  of  the  Dutch  having  notice  of  their  intention  (of 
settling  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson),  and  having  thoughts 
about  the  same  time  of  erecting  a  plantation  there  likewise, 
they  fraudently  hired  the  said  Jones,  by  delays  while  they 
were  in  England,  and  now  under  pretence  of  the  shoals,  to  dis¬ 
appoint  them  in  their  going  thither” _ “Of  this  plot  between 

the  Dutch  and  Mr.  Jones  I  have  had  late  and  certain  intelli¬ 
gence.” 

Nathaniel  Morton,  Secretary  of  Plymouth  Colony,  and 
Town  Clerk  of  Plymouth,  was  the  son  of  George  Morton  and 
his  wife  Juliana  Carpenter,  sister  of  Governor  Bradford’s  sec¬ 
ond  wife.  The  Secretary  died  at  Plymouth  in  1685,  aged  about 
seventy-two  years.  Hiis  Memorial,  published  in  1669,  at  the 
direction  of  the  Colony,  was  primary  authority  until  the  re¬ 
covery  of  Bradford’s  Ms.  in  1855,  and  from  the  close  of  Brad¬ 
ford’s  record  continues  the  history  of  the  Colony  down  to  1668, 
but  is  no  longer  primary  authority,  except  for  the  latter  period. 
Morton’s  assertion  that  Captain  Jones  was  bribed  to  conduct 
the  Pilgrims  out  of  their  intended  course  is  disputed. 

George,  the  father  of  the  Secretary,  came  in  the  Ann,  in 
1623,  and  while  the  ancestor  was  not  of  the  number  of  the 
Pilgrim  passengers,  the  family  had  been  identified  with  the 
Pilgrims  before  the  migration  to  Holland.  Of  the  four  chil¬ 
dren  of  George  Morton,  Secretary  Nathaniel  left  no  male  isaue; 

76 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


broke  out  in  the  Mayflower,  and  significance  of  the  Com¬ 
pact  is  not  understood  unless  these  facts  are  taken  into 
consideration.  The  introductory  words  of  Bradford  are 
illustrative : 

“I  shall  a  little  returne  back  and  begine  with 
a  combination  made  by  them  before  they  came  ashore, 
being  ye  first  foundation  of  their  governmente  in  this 
place;  occasioned  partly  by  ye  discontened  &  mutinous 
speeches  that  some  of  the  strangers  amongst  them 
had  let  fall  from  them  in  ye  ship — That  when  they 
came  ashore  they  would  use  their  own  libertie;  for 
none  had  power  to  command  them,  the  patents  they 
had  being  for  Virginia,  and  not  for  New-england,  which 
belonged  to  an  other  Government,  with  which  ye  Vir¬ 
ginia  Company  had  nothing  to  doe.  And  partly  that 
shuch  an  acte  by  them  done  (this  their  condition  con¬ 
sidered)  might  be  as  fine  as  any  patent,  and  in  some 
respects  more  sure.’’ 

Without  authority,  without  right,  the  colonists  or¬ 
ganized  themselves  into  a  body  politic,  placing  themselves 


Ephraim,  brother  of  Nathaniel,  was  the  ancestor  of  Marcus 
Morton;  the  daughter,  Patience,  married  John  Faunce  and  be¬ 
came  the  mother  of  Elder  Faunce;  John  married  Mary  Ring, 
granddaughter  of  Stephen  Hopkins,  and  settled  in  Middle- 
borough,  Plymouth  County.  Ebenezer,  son  of  John,  married 
Mercy  Foster,  and  had  John,  who  married  Elizabeth  Bennett, 
a  descendant  of  Henry  Sampson  and  John  Howland,  John  and 
Elizabeth  Tilley  (in  two  lines)-  Lucy,  daughter  of  John,  and 
Elizabeth  Bennett,  married  Jabez  Soule,  a  descendant  of 
George  Soule,  John  Alden,  Priscilla  Mullins,  William  Mullins, 
Alice  Mullins  (his  wife),  Myles  Standish  and  Francis  Eaton- 
Sarah  Soule,  daughter  of  Jabez  and  his  wife  Lucy  Morton, 
married  Dependence  Sturtevant,  a  descendant  of  Richard  War¬ 
ren-  Thus  the  Pilgrim  families  of  the  Old  Colons  are  interre¬ 
lated-  In  Cape  May  County,  New  Jersey,  the  Pilgrim  stock  is 
likewise  intermingled,  and  the  names  Church,  Morton,  Eldredge, 
Whilldin  and  Foster  are  among  the  living  descendants  of  the 
New  England  whalers  who  first  brought  the  Pilgrim  strain 
to  southern  Jersey  (isee  “Mayflower  Descendants  in  Cape  May 
County’7)-  That  the  Cape  May  families  of  Whilldin  and  Eld¬ 
redge  came  from  Yarmouth  we  have  certain  proof,  and  it  is 
probable  that  in  Middleborough  we  shall  find  other  ancestors 
whose  names  have  been  continued  in  Cape  May  to  the  present 
time- 


77 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


under  the  protection  of  the  King  of  England.  “Perhaps 
the  only  instance  in  human  history  of  that  positive,  origi¬ 
nal  social  compact  which  speculative  philosophers  have 
imagined  as  the  only  legitimate  source  of  government. 
Here  was  a  unanimous  and  personal  assent  by  all  the  indi¬ 
viduals  of  the  community  to  the  association,  by  which  they 
became  a  nation.”  (John  Quincy  Adams,  1802). 


The  words  of  the  Compact  are  as  follows: 

IN  YE  NAME  OF  GOD.  AMEN!  We  whose 
names  are  under-writen,  the  loyall  subjects  of  our 
dread  soveraigne  Lord,  King  James,  by  ye  grace  of 
God,  of  Great  Britaine,  Franc,  &  Ireland  king,  defend¬ 
er  of  ye  faith,  &c.,  haveing  undertaken,  for  ye  glorie 
of  God  and  advancemente  of  ye  Christian  faith,  and 
honour  of  our  king  and  countries,  a  voyage  to  plant 
ye  first  co’onie  in  ye  Northerne  parts  of  Virginia,  doe 
by  these  presents  solemnly  and  mutually  in  ye  pres¬ 
ence  of  God,  and  one  of  another,  covenant  and  combine 
our  selves  togeather  into  a  civill  body  politick,  for  our 
better  ordering  and  preservation  and  furtherance  of  ye 
ends  aforesaid;  and  by  virtue  hearof  to  enact,  consti¬ 
tute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equall  lawes,  ordinances, 
acts,  constitutions,  and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as 
shall  be  thought  most  mette  and  convenient  for  ye 
general!  good  of  ye  Colon) e,  unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  subbmission  and  obedience. 

In  witnes  wherof  we  have  hereunder  subscribed 
our  names  at  Cape-Codd  ye  II.  of  November,  in  ye 
year  of  ye  raigne  of  our  soveraigne  lord,  King  James, 
of  England,  France  &  Ireland  ye  eighteenth,  and  of 
Scotland  ye  fiftie-fourth.  Ano.  Dom.  1620.  (Bradford 
110).5 

For  the  first  year  of  the  life  at  Cape  Cod  and 
Plymouth,  this  Compact,  resting  upon  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  was  the  foundation  of  all  authority  in  the  Col¬ 
ony.  Under  it  the  governor  was  elected,  Standish  was  ap¬ 
pointed  captain  with  authority  of  command,  and  necessary 

NOTE  5. — “The  settlers  of  all  the  former  European  colon¬ 
ies  had  contented  themselves  with  the  powers  conferred  upon 

78 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 

discipline  administered.  While  the  Colonists  acknowledge 
the  king,  the  king  did  not  acknowledge  them,  and  for  the 
first  year  the  Pilgrims  both  in  theory  and  in  practice 
governed  themselves  and  voluntarily  formed  the  most 
complete  democracy  known  to  that  time  in  the  history  of 
civilization. 

On  the  return  of  the  Mayflower  in  May  1621,  the 
Merchant  Adventurers  appealed  in  behalf  of  the  Pilgrims 
to  the  President  and  Council  of  New  England  for  a  grant 
of  the  territory  on  which  they  had  unintentionally  settled. 
The  patent  was  granted  June  11,  1621,  and  sent  to  the 
Pilgrims  by  the  ship  Fortune,  reaching  them  Nov.  20, 
1621.  This  patent,  made  out,  like  the  former  one,  in  the 
name  of  John  Peirce  remained  in  force  one  year  only. 
(Young  234:  note).  In  the  following  year,  Pierce  surrep¬ 
titiously  contrived  to  have  this  patent  exchanged  for  an¬ 
other  running  to  him,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns, 
planning  to  take  possession  of  the  land  in  his  own  name 
and  reduce  the  settlers  to  a  condition  of  vassalage  to  him, 
but  Peirce  was  compelled  through  financial  losses  to  sur¬ 
render  for  a  consideration  this  last  patent  to  the  Mer¬ 
chant  Adventurers. 

In  1630  the  Council  for  New  England  sent  over  a  new 
patent  of  the  Pilgrim  territory,  defining  the  grant  as 
practically  co -extensive  with  the  present  counties  of  Ply¬ 
mouth,  Barnstable  and  Bristol,  with  a  tract  of  land  for 
trade  on  the  Kennebec^  reaching  from  the  present  city  of 


them  by  their  respective  charters,  without  looking  beyond  the 
seal  of  the  royal  parchment  for  the  measure  of  their  rights  and 
the  rule  of  their  duties.  The  founders  of  Plymouth  had  been 
impelled  by  the  peculiarities  of  their  situation  to  examine  the 
subject  with  deeper  and  more  comprehensive  research.”  John 
Quincy  Adams,  1802. 

>  79  ,  '  '  „  .. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


Augusta,  thirteen  miles  down  the  stream,  and  extending 
fifteen  miles  each  side  of  the  river.  The  patent  in  the 
name  of  Bradford,  and  known  as  the  “ Warwick  Patent,” 
is  still  in  the  Registry  of  Deeds  at  Plymouth.  Bradford 
surrendered  the  Warwick  Patent  to  the  freeman  of  the 
Colony  in  1640.  (Brigham  305). 

In  1643,  the  Colonies  of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts 
Bay,  Connecticutt  and  New  Haven  formed  a  confederacy 
called  “The  United  Colonies  of  New  England.”  The  ob¬ 
ject  of  the  league  was  mainly  mutual  deference,  and  all 
able-bodied  males  between  the  ages  of  16  and  30  were 
liable  to  be  called  to  the  defense  of  an  invaded  colony. 
The  quota  of  soldiers,  showing  the  relative  population,  was 
as  follows:  Massachusetts,  150;  Plymouth,  30;  Connecti¬ 
cut,  30 ;  New  Haven,  25 ;  making  a  total  of  235.  Each 
Colony  chose  annually  two  church  members  as  commis¬ 
sioners.  (The  question  of  the  religious  qualification  of 
freemen  will  be  discussed  later). 


80 


II.  TITLES  TO  LAND 


It  is  an  accepted  fact  of  American  history  that  a  great 
part  of  the  land  acquired  by  the  early  settlers  was  sold  by 
the  Indians  for  an  insufficient  consideration,  a  few  arti¬ 
cles  of  clothing,  knives  and  other  inexpensive  commodities 
appealing  to  the  present  wants  of  the  savage  taste,  and  the 
morality  of  these  transactions  has  been  severely  criticised. 
In  Plymouth  Colony  we  find  the  same  transactions  and  the 
same  ethical  problems.  In  1649  the  residents  of  Duxbury, 
adjoining  the  town  of  Plymouth,  desirous  of  enlarging 
their  borders,  petitioned  the  Governor  and  Board  of  As¬ 
sistants  for  permission  to  make  an  extension  to  the  west¬ 
ward.  There  was  at  that  time  a  tract  of  land  owned  by 
Massasoit,  then  called  Satucket,  now  Bridgewater  and  the 
adjoining  towns  which  have  been  set  off  therefrom.  The 
survey  read:  “From  the  ivear  (sic),  seven  miles  to  the 
East,  seven  miles  to  the  West,  seven  miles  to  the  North, 
seven  miles  to  the  South.”  The  sale  was  accomplished 
by  a  committee  comprised  of  Captain  Myles  Standish, 
Samuel  Nash,  Constant  Southworth,  all  of  Duxbury,  and 
the  consideration  in  this  extensive  sale  of  land  was  as  fol¬ 
lows: 

7  coats,  a  yard  and  a  half  of  cloth  in  each. 

9  hatchets. 

8  hoes. 

29  knives. 

2  moose  skins. 

10  1-2  yards  of  cotton. 

Myles  Standish,  John  Alden,  George  Soule,  John  Rog¬ 
ers,  William  Brett  and  Constant  Southworth  distributed 
the  land  among  their  relatives  (Thacher  366,  and  published 


83 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


address  of  Mr.  Herbert  Randall  before  General  Society  of 
Mayflower  Descendants,  Plymouth  1915). 

It  is  difficult  to  reconcile  the  facts  of  this  typical 
transaction  with  the  express  statements  of  the  early  writ¬ 
ers  that  the  Indians  were  always  paid  full  value  for  the 
land  acquired,  and  that  no  advantage  was  taken  of  them. 
Dr.  Young  says:  “The  first  planters  of  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  invariably  purchased  of  the  natives  the  land 
on  which  they  settled  for  a  consideration  which  was  deem¬ 
ed  at  the  time  fully  equivalent.  They  followed  literally 
the  instructions  given  by  the  governor  of  the  New  Eng¬ 
land  Company  to  Governor  Endicott  in  1629:  ‘If  any  of 
the  salvages  pretend  right  of  inheritance  to  all  or  any  part 
of  the  lands  granted  in  our  patent,  we  pray  you  endevour 
to  purchase  their  title,  that  we  may  avoid  the  least  scruple 
of  intrusion.  Particularly  publish  that  no  wrong  or  in¬ 
jury  be  offered  to  the  natives.’  And  in  1676,  it  was  as 
truly  as  proudlv  said  by  Governor  Josiah  Winslow,  of 
Plymouth,  ‘I  think  I  can  clearly  say  that  before  these 
present  troubles  broke  out  (King  Philip’s  War),  the  Eng¬ 
lish  did  not  possess  one  foot  of  land  in  this  Colony  but 
what  was  fairly  obtained  by  honest  purchase  of  the  Indian 
proprietors.’  ”6  Dr.  Drake,  “ever  inclined  to  give  the 
Indians  the  benefit  of  all  doubts,  and  to  see  doubts  very 
easily,”  says:  “In  no  instance  was  land  taken  from  the 
Indians  without  their  consent,  or  without  a  fair  compen¬ 
sation”  (Goodwin  546). 

NOTE  6. — What  the  value  of  the  land  was  to  the  white 
men,  and  what  value  the  Indians  placed  upon  the  same,  are 
difficult  questions  to  answer.  One  could  wish  that  the  settlers 
had  supplied  the  natives  with  the  implements  of  agriculture 
rather  than  knives  and  gaudy  clothing.  It  is  doubtful,  how¬ 
ever,  if  the  Indians  would  have  accepted  the  agricultural  im- ' 
plememts  in  place  of  the  articles  proffered,  a  sharp  knife  being 

84 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 

The  moral  difficulty  of  the  case  cited  above  is  increas¬ 
ed  by  the  fact  that  Massasoit,  by  whom  the  deed  was 
granted,  lived  at  Sowams,  forty  miles  distant,  and  did  not 


of  more  value  ito  them  than  many  acres  of  forest  land.  It  is 
certain  that  as  time  .went  on  the  natives  at  Plymouth  and  else¬ 
where  realized  and  regretted  the  loss  of  their  ancestral  lands. 
In  the  year  1789,  a  number  of  Indian  Sachems  assembled  at 
New  York,  on  a  mission  to  President  Washington.  General 
Knox  invited  them  to  a  dinner  at  his  table.  A  little  before 
tinner,  two  or  three  of  the  Sachems,  with  their  chief  or  prin¬ 
cipal  man,  went  into  the  balcony,  at  the  front  of  the  house, 
from  which  they  had  a  view  of  the  city,  the  harbor,  Long 
Island  and  the  adjacent  country.  On  returning  into  the  room 
they  appeared  dejected.  General  Knox,  noticing  this,  said  to 
the  chief,  ‘‘Brother,  what  has  happened  to  you?  You  look  sor¬ 
ry!  Is  there  anything  here  to  make  you  unhappy  ?”  He 
answered,  “I  will  tell  you,  brother.  I  have  been  looking  at 
your  beautiful  city,  the  great  water  and  rivers,  your  mighty 
fine  country,  producing  enough  for  all  your  wants;  see  how 
happy  you  all  are.  But  then  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  this 
fine  country,  and  this  great  water  was  once  ours.  Our  an¬ 
cestors  lived  here,  they  enjoyed  it  as  their  own  possessions  in 
peace;  it  was  the  gift  of  the  Great  Spirit  to  them  and  their 
children.  At  length  the  white  people  came  here  in  a  great 
canoe.  They  asked  only  to  let  them  tie  it  to  a  tree,  lest  the 
waters  should  carry  it  away;  we  consented-  They  then  said 
some  of  their  people  were  sick,  and  they  asked  permission  to 
land  them  and  put  them  under  the  shade  of  the  trees.  The 
ice  then  came  and  they  could  not  get  away.  They  then  begged 
a  piece  of  land  to  build  wigwams  for  the  winter;  we  granted 
it  to  them.  They  then  asked  for  some  corn  to  keep  them  from 
starving;  we  kindly  furnished  it  to  them,  they  promising  to 
go  away  when  the  ice  was  gone.  When  this  happened  and  the 
great  water  was  clear,  we  told  them  they  must  now  go  away 
with  their  big  canoe,  but  they  pointed  to  their  big  guns  round 
their  wigwams  and  said  they  would  stay  there,  and  we  could 
not  make  them  go  away.  Afterwards  more  white  people  came. 
They  brought  spirituous  and  intoxicating  liquors  with  them,  of 
which  the  Indians  became  very  fond.  They  persuaded  us  to 
sell  them  some  land.  Finally,  they  drove  us  back  from  time 
to  time  into  the  wilderness,  far  from  the  water  and  the  fish 
and  the  oysters;  they  destroyed  the  game,  our  people  have 
wasted  away  and  now  we  live  miserable  and  wretched,  while 
you  are  enjoying  our  fine  and  beautiful  country.  This  it  is  that 
makes  me  sorry,  brother!  and  I  cannot  help  it.”  Thacher,  398- 
399.  i 


85 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


even  by  pretense,  claim  to  occupy  the  land  at  the  time  of 
sale.  It  is  necessary,  however  before  passing  judgment 
to  review  the  history  of  titles  to  land  from  the  first  settle¬ 
ment.  On  landing  at  Plymouth  in  1620,  the  Pilgrims 
found  extensive  tracts  of  recently  cultivated  land^  but  not 
a  single  occupant  in  the  immediate  neighborhood.  In  the 
great  plague  of  three  years  before,  the  Patux^t  tribe  of 
Plymouth  and  the  adjoining  territory  had  been  completely 
wiped  out,  not  a  member  was  left  in  possession.  Morton 
in  his  New  England  Canaan  says:  “Some  few  years  be¬ 
fore  the  English  came  to  inhabit  at  New  Plymouth,  the 
hand  of  God  fell  heavily  upon  the  natives,  with  such  a 
mortal  stroke  that  they  died  on  heaps.  In  a  place  where 
many  inhabited,  there  hath  been  but  one  alive  to  tell  what 
became  of  the  rest.”  (New  Canaan,  Amsterdam,  1637, 
quoted  in  Young  184.7)  “We  for  our  parts,  through  God’s 
grace,  have  with  that  equity,  justice,  and  compassion  car¬ 
ried  ourselves  towards  them  (the  Indians) ,  as  that  they  have 
received  much  favour,  help  and  aid  from  us,  but  never  the 
least  injury  or  wrong  by  us.  We  found  the  place  where 
we  live  empty,  the  people  being  all  dead  and  gone  away, 
and  none  living  near  by  eight  or  ten  miles.”  (Cushman’s 
Discourse,  Young  259).  The  justice  of  the  Pilgrims’  title 


NOTE  7. — The  great  plague  mentioned  by  Morton  began  in 
Maine,  extended  to  Narnaganset  Bay  and  continued  from  1616 
to  1618.  The  Gape  Cod  Indians  escaped  the  devastation  of  the 
disease  as  did  the  Nemaskets  inhabiting  the  territory  of  the 
present  town  of  Middleborough.  White  men  seemed  immune 
to  the  disease  and  the  physician,  Richard  Vines,  spent  the  win¬ 
ter  of  1616-1617  among  the  plague-stricken  Indians  without  in¬ 
fection.  The  nature  of  the  disese  is  uncertain  and  the  mortality 
so  great  that  the  bones  of  the  unburied  dead  were  long  seen 
by  the  early  explorers  of  the  Pilgrim  country.  Siamoset,  on 
his  first  appearance  at  Plymouth,  informed  the  Pilgrims  that 
there  was  neither  man,  woman  or  child  remaining  in  the  terri¬ 
tory  of  the  Rautuxits. 


86 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 

to  the  land  of  Plymouth  does  not  rest  upon  any  agree¬ 
ment  between  Massasoit  and  the  settlers^  or  upon  any  for¬ 
mal  instrument.  Neither  are  the  words  of  Cushman: 
“They  (the  Indians)  offer  us  to  dwell  where  we  will,” 
(Young  259),  evidence  of  a  moral  title  to  the  land  of 
Plymouth,  and  the  position  taken  in  this  discussion  in  af¬ 
firming  the  moral  validity  of  the  original  titles  of  the 
Pilgrims,  takes  issue  with  the  “Preface  to  Plymouth  Laws, 
declaring  the  warrantable  grounds”  ordered  by  the  Court 
in  1636  to  be  placed  before  the  records  of  the  several  in¬ 
heritances  granted  to  the  King’s  subjects  within  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  New  Plymouth,  stating  that  “All  which  lands 

being  void  of  inhabitants,  we . entering  into  a  league  of 

peace  with  Massasoit,  since  called  Woosamequin  Prince  or 
Sachem  of  those  parts.... He  the  said  Massasoit  freely 
gave  them  all  the  lands  adjacent  to  them  &  their  heirs  for¬ 
ever.”  (Laws  of  Colony  of  Plymouth,  1636). 

The  moral  title  to  the  land  of  Plymouth  was  originally 
vested  in  the  Patuxet  tribe  inhabiting  that  land  rather 
than  in  Massasoit,  with  whom  the  Patuxets  were  in  alli¬ 
ance,  but  the  fact  of  the  alliance  did  not  destroy  the  moral 
right  of  the  occupants  of  the  land  to  the  inheritance  of  their 
fathers.  At  the  time  of  the  Pilgrim  occupation,  one  only 
of  the  original  inhabitants  was  living,  and  he,  rather  than 
Massasoit,  held  the  moral  claim  to  the  land  of  his  tribe, 
the  Patuxets.  This  surviving  member  of  the  original 
owners  became  a  member  of  the  Pilgrim  band  and  spent 
the  remaining  years  of  his  life  with  them.  Tisquantum’s 
assent  to  their  occupancy  is  the  moral  support  of  the  Pil¬ 
grim  titles.8  In  the  subsequent  grants  Massasoit  gave  no 


NOTE  8. — Tisquantnm  was  an  adviser  rather  than  an  In¬ 
dian  laborer  among  the  Pilgrims.  As  the  result  of  his  native 
training,  he  was  given  to  lying  and  deception,  but  to  the  col- 

87 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


moral  title,  and  in  allowing  the  Indians  the  right  to  hunt, 
the  Pilgrims  left  to  the  Indians  their  only  interest  in  the 
unoccupied  land.  This  last  fact  throws  light  upon  the 
seeming  insufficiency  of  consideration  in  the  early  Indian 
deeds.  The  land  was  a  waste,  and  with  the  right  of  hunt¬ 
ing  continued,  the  consideration  to  the  Indians  seemed 
sufficient. 

The  treatment  of  the  Indians  is  a  difficult  question 
to  discuss  with  absolute  fairness,  but  three  illustrations 
will  show  the  spirit  of  the  Colonists  toward  them.  In 
1690,  the  Court  granted  leave  to  Indians  “that  find  them¬ 
selves  agrieved”  to  sue  in  the  courts  without  cost  to  them¬ 
selves  (Brigham  236).  In  1660,  the  Court  forbade  a  col¬ 
onist  to  receive  land  from  the  Indians  as  a  gift,  evidently 
a  law  for  the  protection  of  the  natives.  And  from  the 
first  private  transfers  of  land  from  the  Indians  to  the 
Colonists  were  forbidden,  the  open  consent  of  the  Court 
was  first  required.  (Laws  of  1643).  The  impartial 
justice  of  the  Colonists  is  shown  by  the  execution  in  1638 
of  three  white  men  for  murder  of  one  Indian.  (Thacher 
82,  where  the  author  says  the  most  rigid  justice  was  not 
withheld  from  the  defenceless  natives ;  Thacher  here 
speaks  of  the  Pilgrim  Colonists  as  “Puritans”).9 


onists  he  was  a  good  friend  and  to  the  best  of  his  ability  served 
them  faithffully.  He  was  the  official  interpreter  and  gave  the 
settlers  valuable  information  in  regard  to  hunting,  fishing  and 
planting,  telling  them  that  corn  should  be  planted  when  the  oak 
leaves  were  as  large  as  the  ears  of  a  mouse.  He  died  in  1622, 
requesting  a  prayer  from  Governor  Bradford,  who  cared  for 
him  in  his  last  sickness,  that  he  might  go  to  the  Englishman’s 
heaven.  Bradford  speaks  of  his  death  as  a  great  loss  to  the 
Colony. 


NOTE  9. — In  some  instances  the  Indians  were  appointed 
magistrates  and  administered  justice  in  their  own  courts.  A 


88 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


A  modified  communism  existed  in  the  Pilgrim  Colony 
until  1623,  when  the  first  division  of  land  was  made,  each 
freeman  receiving  a  lot  of  from  one  to  seven  acres  in  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  number  in  the  several  families.  These  lots 
were  located  on  both  sides  of  Town  Brook  at  Plymouth, 
and  consisted  mostly  of  cleared  land  and  ancient  abandon¬ 
ed  corn  fields  of  the  Indians.  The  causes  leading  to  the 
division  of  lands  is  an  answer  to  theorists  of  the  present 
day  who  propose  the  abolition  of  private  ownership  of  land. 
“And  because  there  was  small  hope  of  doing  good,  in  that 
common  course  of  labor  that  formerly  we  were  in ;  for  that 
the  governors,  that  followed  the  men  to  their  labors^  had 
nothing  to  give  men  for  their  necessities,  and  therefore 
could  not  so  well  exercise  that  command  over  them  there¬ 
in,  as  formerly  they  had  done ;  especially  considering  that 
self-love  wherein  every  man,  in  a  measure  more  or  less, 
loveth  and  preferreth  his  own  good  before  his  neighbor’s, 
and  also  the  base  disposition  of  some  drones  that,  as  other 
times,  so  now  especially  would  be  most  burdensome  to  the 
rest;  it  was  therefore  thought  best  that  every  man  should 
use  the  best  diligence  he  could  for  his  own  preservation.” 
(Winslow’s  iRelation,  Young  346). 

Bradford’s  remark  is  especially  illuminating:  “The 
experience  that  was  had  in  this  common  course  and  condi¬ 
tion,  tried  sundrie  years,  and  that  amongst  godly  and  sober 
men,  may  well  evince  the  vanitie  of  that  conceite  of  Platos 
&  other  ancients,  applauded  by  some  of  later  times  ; — that 
ye  taking  away  of  propertie,  and  bringing  in  communitie, 


warrant  issued  by  one  of  these  Indian  courts  of  limited  juris¬ 
diction  is  mentioned  by  Judge  Davis  in  his  appendix  to  Mor¬ 
ton’s  Memorial:  “I,  Hihoudi,  you  Peter  Watermian,  Jeremy 
Wicket,  quick  you  take  him,  fast  you  hold  him,  straight  you 
bring  him  before  me,  Hihoudi.” 

89 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 

into  a  common  wealth,  would  make  them  happy  and  flor- 
ishing;  as  if  they  were  wiser  than  God.”  (Bradford 
163). 10 

A  second  division  of  land  was  agreed  upon  Jan.  3, 
1627,  when  each  freeholder  received  20  acres,  and  until 
the  incorporation  of  towns,  further  divisions  were  made, 
as  more  land  was  required  for  the  growing  Colony. 


NOTE  10. — Robert  Cushman’s  sermon,  delivered  on  Sun¬ 
day,  19  September,  1621,  from  the  text  First  Corinthians,  x: 
24 — “Let  no  man  seek  his  own,  but  every  man  another’s 
wealth,”  seems  to  favor  the  communism  of  the  first  days  of 
the  Pilgrim  settlement.  Land  and  later  cattle  were  held  in 
common,  and  for  a  time  labor  was  in  common,  but  there  was 
no  joint  ownership  of  goods,  although  the  colonists  had  public 
supplies  of  clothing  and  food  until  1623. 


90 


III.  COURTS  AND  GENERAL  LAWS 

In  the  first  days  of  the  Colony  5  cases  for  trial  were 
brought  before  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  who  in  crimi¬ 
nal  cases  sometimes  acted  as  both  judge  and  jury.  Upon 
Bradford’s  election  to  the  office  of  governor,  1621,  Isaac 
Allerton  was  chosen  his  assistant.  In  1624,  the  number  of 
assistants  was  increased  to  five  and  further  increased  to 
seven  in  1636,  the  Governor  having  a  double  vote.  This 
board  of  Assistants  or  Magistrates^  as  they  were  inter¬ 
changeably  called,  was  the  executive  council  of  the  minia¬ 
ture  state,  and  was  also  a  court  for  jury  trials  and  the  de¬ 
cision  of  the  elementary  legal  questions  arising  in  the  first 
days  of  the  settlement.  But  an  appeal  lay  from  it  to  the 
whole  people,  and  the  Governor  and  Assistants  had  little 
authority  beyond  calling  out  the  will  of  the  people,  and  the 
enforcement  of  the  few  elementary  laws,  mostly  oral,  that 
had  been  established.  Brigham  places  1636  as  the  first 
important  era  in  the  history  of  the  laws  of  the  Colony,  and 
the  beginning  of  legislation.  There  are,  however,  frag¬ 
mentary  records  beginning  as  early  as  1623,  and  probably 
other  laws  were  recorded  by  Bradford  in  certain  small 
books  which  Prince  had  in  his  possession  before  1736,  but 
now  are  unfortunately  lost. 

The  first  entry  in  the  record  of  the  Laws  of  New 
Plymouth  is  an  order  of  the  Court  (Governor  and  assist¬ 
ant)  under  date  of  December  17,  1623,  “that  all  criminal 
facts,  and  also  all  matters  of  trespasses  and  debts  be¬ 
tween  man  and  inan,  shall  be  tried  by  the  verdict  of 
twelve  honest  men  to  be  impanelled  by  authority  in  forme 
of  a  jury  upon  their  oath.” 

“The  laws  they  intended  to  be  governed  by  were 
the  laws  of  England — adding  only  some  particular  mu- 

93 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


nicipal  laws  of  their  own,  suitable  to  their  constitu¬ 
tion,  in  such  cases  where  the  common  laws  and  statutes  ] 
of  England  could  not  well  reach,  or  afford  them  selp  in 
emergent  difficulties  of  the  place.”  (Hubbard,  His¬ 
tory  of  New  England  in  Young  197,  note). 

The  next  order  of  the  Court  prohibits  the  exportation 
of  timber,  followed  by  two  orders  forbidding  handicraft- 
men  to  work  for  strangers — here  the  record  of  1623  ends 
and  is  taken  up  in  1626,  by  an  enactment  prohibiting  the 
exportation  of  corn,  beans  or  peas.  A  law  of  1627  forbids 
the  use  of  thach  in  covering  dwelling  houses,  and  the 
same  Court  authorized  the  second  division  of  land.  The 
record  is  then  interrupted  until  1632,  when  we  find  the 
.nteresting  enactment,  by  public  consent  of  the  freemen  of 
the  Society  of  New  Plymouth,  that  ‘‘if  now  or  hereafter 
any  were  elected  to  the  office  of  governor,  and  refused  to 
serve,  he  shall  be  amerced  20  Pounds  Sterling,  ’  ’  and  a  like 
penalty  of  10  Pounds  in  case  an  elected  assistant  refused 
to  serve.  This  remarkable  law  is  explained  in  part  by  the 
fact  that  public  officers  received,  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Colony,  no  remuneration  for  their  services.  In  1633,  the 
Court  formally  assumed  jurisdiction  over  wills  and  the  es¬ 
tates  of  deceased  persons,  and  in  the  same  year  the  first 
law  relating  to  damage  caused  by  trespass  was  enacted. 
The  final  words  of  the  enactment,  (providing  for  assess¬ 
ment  of  damage  by  trespass  of  cattle),  “Not  withstand¬ 
ing  any  laws  to  the  contrary,”  suggests  that  other  laws  re¬ 
lating  to  the  same  subject  had  been  enacted,  but  not  put 
upon  the  record  book,  or  may  have  been  mere  form.  The 
records  are  now  further  interrupted  until  1636,  when  the 
first  revision  of  the  laws  was  made,  and  most  of  the  laws 
which  had  before  been  adopted  -were  re-enacted,  and  oth¬ 
ers  added,  as  it  became  necessary  to  define  more  clearly 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  members  of  a  growing  com¬ 
munity.  One  of  the  added  laws  provided  that  inheritances 


94 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


were  to  descend,  “according  to  the  commendable  cnstome 
of  England  and  hold  of  East  Greenwich. ”  Re-enacted 
1658 — “The  said  premises — with  all  and  singulare  the  ap- 
purtanances  belonging  therunto  to  bee  holden  as  of  his 
Majestie  his  manner  of  Eastgreenwich  in  the  conntey  of 
Kent  in  ffree  and  Common  Soccage  and  not  in  Capite 
nor  by  Knight  service.  (Deed  of  Indians  to  John  How¬ 
land  et  al.,  1661,  Mayflower  Descendant  1914,  No.  2). 

Inquests  into  the  abuses  and  breaches  of  the  laws  by 
a  Grand  Jury  were  ordered  in  the  revision  of  1636,  and 
that  sales  of  land  must  be  acknowledged  before  one  of  the 
Assistants  and  committeed  to  public  record — the  impress¬ 
ment  of  soldiers  was  authorized,  “where  there  be  not  vol¬ 
unteers  sufficient  offered  for  service.” 

A  further  enactment  of  1636,  as  a  protection  against 
fire,  required  each  householder  “to  have  one  sufficient 
ladder  or  ladders  at  least  which  will  reach  ye  top”  of  the 
house  upon  penalty  of  such  default  of  ten  shillings.  It 
was  also  ordered  by  the  Court  that  four  men  should  be 
hired  to  keep  watch  at  Plymouth,  at  public  charge,  for  the 
safety  of  the  pei’son  of  the  Governor.  When  in  1637, 
Thomas  Prence  of  Duxbury  was  elected  Governor,  a  for¬ 
mer  act  requiring  the  executive  to  reside  in  the  town  of 
Plymouth,  was  suspended  in  the  new  Governor’s  favor.11 

NOTE  11. — Thomas  Prince,  born  in  Sandwich,  1687,  died 
1758,  graudated  at  Harvard  College,  1707,  ordained  after  gradu¬ 
ation  to  the  Ministry,  travelled  in  West  Indies  and  England.  He 
began  a  collection  of  manuscripts  on  the  history  of  New 
England  in  1703.  The  documents  were  kept  in  the  Old  South 
Church  tower  at  Boston,  and  were  partly  destroyed  by  the 
British  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  The  remains  of  the 
collected  manuscripts  form  the  Prince  Collection  in  the  Public 
Library,  Boston.  His  most  famous  work  was  “The  Chronolog¬ 
ical  History  of  New  England,”  which  during  the  period  of  the 
losis  of  Bradford’s  manuscript  was  a  primary  authority  in  Pil¬ 
grim  history.  Certain  excerpts  from  lost  writings  of  Bradford 
are  included  in  the  Chronology,  making  it  still  a  primary  source 
of  Pilgrim  information. 


95 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


From  the  first  the  Governor  assembled  the  whole  body 
of  freemen  when  mJatters  of  importance  to  the  State  were 
to  be  considered,  and  this  assemblage  of  the  whole  body  of 
free  citizens,  called  the  ‘‘General  Court,”  was,  as  has  been 
said,  the  supreme  authority  in  the  Colony.  As  the  num¬ 
ber  of  Assistants  was  increased,  at  first  one,  in  1624  five, 
and  in  1636  seven,  the  ordinary  affairs  of  state,  and  the 
questions  arising  as  the  Colony  grew  and  relations  with 
other  colonies  were  established,  were  determined  by  the 
“Court,”  i.  e.  the  Governor  and  the  Board  of  Assistants, 
but  if  the  Assistants,  after  the  Governor  had  brought  the 
case  before  them,  judged  the  matter  too  great  to  be  decided 
by  them,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Governor  to  call  a  “Gen¬ 
eral  Court”  to  decide  the  matter  in  question,  and  each 
freeman  who  failed  to  attend  the  General  Court,  at  least 
once  a  vear  at  the  annual  election  on  the  first  Tuesdav  in 
March,  was  liable  to  a  fine  of  3  shillings.  The  evident 
hardship  of  the  law  requiring  the  whole  body  of  citizens 
of  the  outlying  towns  to  attend  the  General  Court  at  Ply¬ 
mouth,  and  the  complaint  of  the  freemen  led  to  the  follow¬ 
ing  enactment  in  1638,  which  is  a  beginning  of  the  repre¬ 
sentative  system  of  our  American  States.  “Whereas  com¬ 
plaint  was  made  that  the  freemen  were  put  to  many  incon- 
veniencies  and  great  expenses  by  their  eontinuall  attend¬ 
ance  at  the  Courts,  It  is  therefore  enacted  by  the  Court 
for  the  case  of  the  several  Colonies  and  Townes  within 
the  Government,  That  Every  Towne  shall  make  choyce  of 
two  of  their  freemen  and  the  Towne  of  Plymouth  of  foure, 
to  be  Committees  or  deputies  to  joyne  with  the  Bench  to 
enact  and  make  all  such  laws  and  ordinances  as  shall  be 
judged  to  be  good  and  wholesome  for  the  whole”  (Brig¬ 
ham  63).  At  the  present  day  the  legislative  body  of  Mas¬ 
sachusetts  is  called  “The  Great  and  General  Court.” 


96 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


As  the  colony  grew  the  sessions  of  the  Court  were 
held  at  more  regular  periods  and  with  greater  frequency, 
until  in  1685  the  Colony  was  divided  into  three  counties, 
Plymouth,  Barnstable  and  Bristol,  each  county  named  for 
its  shire-town,  and  having  its  semi-annual  court  with  pro¬ 
bate  jurisdiction,  and  its  clerk  kept  the  registry  of  deeds. 
There  are  few  instances  of  legislation  governing  contracts 
and  torts,  the  laws  of  England  covering  such  causes,  and 
in  1662  the  treasurer  was  ordered  by  the  Court  to  procure 
“a  booke  of  the  statutes  of  England  for  the  use  of  the 
Colonie.  ”  (Brigham  137). 

The  Revised  Laws  of  1671  are  a  premonition  of  the 
revolt  against  foreign  rule  of  a  century  later,  and  in  the 
“General  Fundamentals”  we  find  the  following: 

“That  no  Act,  Imposition,  Law  or  Ordinance  shall 
be  made  or  imposed  upon  us,  at  present  or  in  time  to 
come;  but  such  as  shall  be  made  or  imposed  by  consent 
of  the  Body  of  Freeman  or  associates,  or  their  Rep¬ 
resentatives  legally  assembled-” 

At  the  same  time  the  Fathers  looked  to  England  as 
the  mother  country,  and  twTenty  years  after  the  landing 
Bradford  speaks  of  sending  a  ship  home  to  England. 


97 


. 


’ 


' 


IV.  LAWS  GOVERNING  CONDUCT 

including 

CRIMINAL  LAWS 

For  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  life  of  the  Colony 
there  were  no  criminal  laws,  but  there  were  two  cases  of 
punishment  before  the  records  open.  In  the  early  spring 
of  1621,  a  turbulent  member  of  the  Colony,  foisted  upon 
the  Pilgrims  by  some  enemies  among  the  Adventurers  so 
it  is  supposed,  named  John  Billington  (of  whom  Bradford 
wrote  in  1625,  “he  is  a  knave,  and  so  will  live  and  die,” 
a  prophecy  fulfilled  five  years  later^  when  he  was  executed 
for  murder),  refused  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  military 
commander,  Myles  Standish,  returning  the  Captain’s  re¬ 
proof  with  abuse  and  threats.  He  was  promptly  sum¬ 
moned  before  the  whole  body  of  colonists,  “convented  be¬ 
fore  the  whole  company,”  and  sentenced  to  lie  for  a  time 
in  a  public  place  with  neck  and  heels  tied  together.  Upon 
pleading  for  pardon,  he  was  released,  the  more  readily 
because  no  punishment  had  been  inflicted  yet  upon  any 
one.  This  painful  episode  in  Pilgrim  history,  from  Brad¬ 
ford’s  Note  Book,  is  preserved  for  us  by  Prince,  103,  the 
Note  Book  is  lost.12  In  spite  of  Billington ’s  evil  record 


NOTE  12- — The  autographic  manuscript  of  Bradford’s  his¬ 
tory  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  sometimes  called  the  ‘‘Log  of  the 
Mayflower,”  is  deposited  in  the  Massachusetts  State  Library  at 
Boston,  and  with  proper  care  may  be  examined  by  the  investi¬ 
gator.  The  famous  manuscript  is  a  folio  IV2  inches  by  12, 
backed  with  parchment-  In  scope  the  history  extends  from  1602 
to  1646,  with  a  list  of  Mayflower  passengers  at  the  end  under 
date  of  1650.  Prince,  in  his  New  England  Chronology,  describes 
it  giving  the  number  of  pages.  This  most  interesting  docu¬ 
ment  in  American  history  was  also  used  by  Governor  Hutchin¬ 
son  in  the  preparation  of  the  second  volume  of  his  history,  1757. 
For  nearly  a  century  the  manscript  was  lost,  until  in  1855  it 

99 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


and  unfortunate  end,  so  great  is  the  reverence  for  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  that  his  descendants  are  proud  to  claim 
him  as  an  ancestor,  and  some  of  the  descendants  of  Gov¬ 
ernor  Bradford  are  also  descended  from  the  first  murderer 
executed  in  New  England. 

On  June  18  of  the  same  year,  Edward  Doty  and  Ed¬ 
ward  Lister  two  employees  of  Stephen  Hopkins,  attempted 
to  settle  what  they  considered  an  affair  of  honor  by  a  duel. 
As  in  the  former  case,  the  whole  company  was  assembled 
to  give  judgment,  which  was  that  the  culprits  should  have 
heads  and  feet  tied  together  and  so  remain  without  food 
or  drink  for  twenty-four  hours.  After  an  hour  of  punish¬ 
ment,  on  promise  of  good  behaviour,  they  were  released 
at  the  request  of  their  employer,  Stephen  Hopkins  (Mourt, 
in  Young  201).  Duelling  was  never  attempted  again  in 
the  Old  Colony  of  Plymouth. 

The  first  recorded  law  regulating  conduct  is  in  1633, 
when  the  sale  of  wine  or  “strong  water,”  is  forbidden, 
except  at  a  public  house,  “and  there  only  to  strangers  at 
their  first  coming,”  and  the  price  of  beer  is  fixed  at  two 
pence  a  quart.  At  the  revision  of  the  laws  in  1636,  it 
was  enacted  that  in  every  “eontablerick”  a  pair  of  stocks 
and  a  whipping  post  should  be  erected,  with  a  cage  of 
competent  strength  to  detain  a  prisoner.  Thacher,  writ¬ 
ing  in  1835,  says  “these  stocks  and  whipping  posts  were 
appendages  to  every  meeting  house  till  within  the  last 
fifty  years”  (History  of  Plymouth,  81). 13 

was  discovered  in  the  library  of  the  Bishop  of  London  and 
finally  returned  to  the  United  States.  A  copy  has  been  issued 
by  the  State  of  Massachusetts  and  is  found  in  the  larger 
libraries  of  the  country. 

NOTE  13 — Having  no  prisons  in  the  Colony,  the  stbcks 
took  the  place  of  imprisonment  as  a  mode  of  punishment.  But 
the  stocks  and  the  whipping  post  were  generally  brought  into 

100 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


In  1638  a  law  against  idleness  provided  that  those 
who  were  “suspected  to  live  idly  and  loosely, ’ ’  should  be 
brought  before  the  Governor  and  Assistants  (re-enacted 
1653,  with  the  alteration  allowing  idle  persons  to  be 
brought  before  the  magistrate  of  the  town  where  they  re¬ 
sided).  The  Pilgrims  were  not  total  abstainers,  and  the 
only  instance  in  Governor  Bradford’s  manuscript  of  an 
alleged  supernatural  interference  in  human  affairs,  in  an 
extraordinary  and  irrational  way,  of  which  the  later 
Puritan  writers,  like  Cotton  Mather,  were  fond  of  relat¬ 
ing,  is  Bradford’s  account  of  the  refusal  of  Captain  Jones, 
of  the  Mayflower,  to  send  some  beer  from  the  ship  to  a 
sick  man  in  the  new  settlement.  As  a  consequence  of  the 
cruelty  of  his  refusal  to  provide  the  refreshment  craved 
by  the  sick  man,  so  Bradford  says,  Captain  Jones  and  the 
crew  became  violently  ill,  and  Jones,  repenting  of  his 
harshness,  sent  the  sick  man  the  desired  stimulant.  This, 
the  Governor  intimates,  was  a  supernatural  intervention, 
and  in  a  note  Bradford  says,  the  sick  man  was  the  author 
(Bradford)  himself  (Bradford,  112).  In  1636  a  law  pro¬ 
vided  that  “such  as  either  drinke  drunke  in  their  persons 


operation  as  the  alter  native  to  a  fine.  An  impecunious  culprit 
might  avoid  punishment,  in  some  cases,  by  prevailing  upon  a 
bystander  to  accept  his  promise  of  work  in  repayment  for  ad¬ 
vancing  the  amount  of  the  fine. 

The  offence  called  euphemnstically  by  Pilgrim  descendants 
a  “premature  opening  of  the  family  record,"  was  punished  by 
publicly  whipping  the  husband  and  putting  the  wife  in  the 
stocks.  The  law  was  afterwards  modified  by  the  substitution 
of  a  fine-  Among  those  punished  for  .this  offence  were  Peri- 
grine  White,  the  first-iborn  child  of  the  Colony;  Thomas  Cush¬ 
man,  son  of  the  Elder;  James  Oudsworth,  son  of  the  future 
general  and  deputy-igovernor;  Jonathan,  his  brother;  Samuel 
Arnold,  son  of  the  Marshfield  pastor;  Isaac  Robinson,  grand¬ 
son  of  the  Leyden  pastor;  Thomas  Delanco,  Nathaniel  Church, 
and  others  of  the  first  families  of  the  Old  Colony.  See  Good¬ 
win,  600. 


10? 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


or  suffer  any  to  drinke  drunke  in  their  houses  be  inquired 
into  amongst  other  misdemeanors  and  punished  or  fined 
or  both  at  the  discretion  of  the  bench,  ”  and  this  law  with 
additions  continued  to  the  end  of  the  Colony. 

“Whereas  there  is  great  abuse  in  taking  tobacco  in  very 
uncivill  manner  openly  in  the  Towne  streets,”  it  was  en¬ 
acted  in  1638,  that  anyone  using  tobacco  within  a  mile  of 
his  dwelling,  or  at  his  work  in  the  fields,  except  at  meal 
time,  should  be  fined  12  pence.  “And  for  boyes  and  ser¬ 
vants  that  shall  offend  herein,  and  have  nothing  to  pay, 
to  be  set  in  the  stocks  for  the  first  default,  and  for  the 
second  to  be  whipped.”  This  law  was  entered  upon  the 
record  book  and  after  erased,  but  in  1646  a  similar  law 
was  enacted,  the  preamble  setting  forth  the  danger  of  fire 
to  out-houses,  barns  and  hay  stacks  (re-enacted  1658). 
The  penalty  for  telling  a  wilful  lie  was,  by  a  law  of  1653, 
a  fine  of  10  shillings  or  “setting  in  the  stocks  for  not  more 
than  two  hours”;  re-enacted  in  1671  with  the  addition: 
“But  in  case  where  the  lye  is  greatly  pernicious  to  the 
public  weal,  it  shall  be  more  severely  punished  according 
to  the  nature  of  it.” 

In  the  revision  of  1671  the  following  were  declared 
crimes  punishable  by  death: 

(1)  Idolatry  (never  inflicted). 

(2)  Blasphemy  (never  inflicted). 

(3)  Treason  against  the  King  of  England  (never  in¬ 
flicted). 

(4)  Conspiracy  against  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Colony 
(never  inflicted). 

(5)  Wilful  murder. 

(6)  Manslaughter. 

(7  )  Murder  by  guile  or  poison. 

102 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


(8)  ‘‘If  any  Christian  (so-called)  be  a  witch,  that  is,  hath 
or  consults  with  a  Familiar  Spirit,  he  or  she  shall  be 
put  to  death.”  This  penalty  was  never  inflicted  in 
Plymouth  Colony,  and  the  presence  of  the  law  on  the 
statute  book  shows  the  growing  influence  of  the  more 
powerful  neighboring  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
The  great  leaders  of  liberal  thought  had  died  and 
Plymouth  was  governed  by  Magistrates  and  Ministers 
of  Puritan  hardness  of  feeling  who  were  no  longer  of 
Pilgrim  training  or  even  of  Pilgrim  stock.  It  is  im¬ 
possible  to  believe  that  Bradford,  Brewster  and  Stand- 
ish  would  have  consented  to  this  law,  and  the  subject 
will  be  further  discussed  under  the  head  of  Law't 
Governing  Religion  and  Religious  Societies. 

(9)  Bestiality  (Bradford,  474). 14 


iNOTE  14. — ‘IMarvilous  it  may  be  to  see  and  consider  how 
some  kind  of  wickedness  did  grow  &  breake  forth  here,  in  a 
land  wher  the  same  was  so  much  witnessed  against,  and  so 
narrowly  looked  into,  &  severely  punished  when  it  was  kmowne; 
as  in  no  place  more,  or  so  much,  that  I  have  known  or  heard 
ofjinsomuch  as  they  have  been  somewhat  censuered,  even  by 
moderate  and  good  men,  for  their  severitie  in  punishments. 
Aud  yet  all  this  could  not  surpress  ye  breaking  out  of  sundrie 
notorious  sins,  (as  this  year,  besids  other,  gives  us  too  many 
sad  presidents  and  instances) - 1  say  it  may  be  justly  mar¬ 

veled  at,  and  cause  us  to  fear  &  tremble  at  the  consideration  of 
corrupts  natures,  which  are  so  hardly  bridled,  subdued,  &  mor¬ 
tified;  nay,  cannot  by  any  other  means  but  ye  powerfull  worke 
&  grace  of  Gods  spirite-  But  (besides  this)  one  reason  may  be, 
that  ye  Divell  may  carrie  a  greater  spite  against  the  churches 
of  Christ  and  ye  gospell  hear,  by  how  much  ye  more  they  in- 
deaour  to  preserve  holy  ness  and  puritie  amongst  them,  and 
strictly  punisheth  the  contrary  when  it  ariseth  either  in  church 
or  commone  wealth:  that  he  might  cast  a  blemishe  &  Staine 
upon  them  in  ye  eyes  of  (ye)  world,  who  used  to  be  rashe  in 
judgmente.  I  would  thinke  thus,  then  that  Siatane  hath  more 
power  in  these  heathen  lands,  as  som  have  thought,  then  in 
more  Christian  nations,  espetially  over  God  is  servants  in  them.” 
Bradford  459-460. 


103 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 

(10)  (Sodomy  (never  inflicted). 

(11)  “If  any  person  rise  up  by  false  witness,  wittingly  and 
of  purpose,  to  take  away  any  man’s  life,  he  shall  be 
put  to  death”  (never  inflicted). 

(12)  Manstealing  (never  inflicted). 

(13)  Cursing  or  smiting  father  or  mother  (never  in¬ 
flicted). 

(14)  “If  a  stubborn  or  rebellious  son,  of  sufficient  age 
and  understanding — viz :  sixteen  years — shall  not 
obey  the  voice  of  his  father,  or  the  voice  of  his 
mother,  such  son  shall  be  put  to  death,  or  otherwise 
severely  punished”  (The  extreme  penalty  never  in¬ 
flicted  in  the  life  of  the  Colony). 

(15)  Rape  (never  inflicted). 

(16)  Wilful  burning  of  houses  or  ships  (Never  inflicted). 

These  penalties  seem  severe  and  show  the  influence  of 
the  Levitical  law  upon  the  legislation  of  the  later  days  of 
the  Colony,  but  the  penalties  were  rarely  inflicted,  while 
the  law  stood,  a  terror  to  evil  doers.  During  the  whole 
life  of  the  Colony  there  were  ten  executions  under  the 
civil  authority,  as  follows: 

John  Billington^  executed  for  murder,  1630.  Three 
white  men  for  murder  (by  guile,  so  the  law  was  probably 
interpreted)  of  one  Indian,  1638.  An  execution  under  the 
adopted  Levitical  law,  for  unnatural  crimes,  1642.  A  sad 
case  in  1648,  where  an  undoubtedly  insane  mother  was  ex¬ 
ecuted  for  killing  her  daughter  of  four  years,  the  medical 
skill  of  the  day  not  being  sufficiently  advanced  to  perceive 
her  condition.  Three  Indians,  for  killing  John  Sassamon, 
called  by  Eliot,  “the  first  Christian  martyr  of  the 
Indians.”  The  crime  was  committed  at  Middleborough  in 


104 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


1675,  just  before  the  beginning  of  King  Philip’s  War. 
John  Armand  de  la  Forrest,  executed  for  murder  in  1690.15 


NOTE  15. — In  1664,  John  Sassamon,  an  Indian,  deserted 
King  Philip’s  service  and  informed  the  governor  of  the  Indian 
plot  to  exterminate  the  English.  While  the  government  was 
concerned  with  measures  of  defense,  Siassamion  was  killed,  and 
his  body  hidden  under  the  ice  in  Assawamsett  pond  in  Namas- 
ket,  now  known  as  .Middleborough.  His  murderers  were  three 
of  King  Philip’s  men.  They  were  detected  and  tried  by  a  court 
held  in  June,  1674.  They  were  condemned  to  death  and  were 
executed,  several  Indians  being  upon  the  jury.  The  war  that 
followed  is  known  in  history  as  King  Philip’s  Wiar.  Sasisamon 
was  a  Punkapoag  Indian,  born  at  Dorchester,  of  parents  who 
became  Christian.  He  was  a  missionary  to  the  Indians  and 
served  with  the  English  in  the  Pequod  war  in  1637,  and  was 
afterward  a  student  in  the  Indian  department  at  Harvard-  His 
murder  seems  to  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Indians 
wished  to  put  an  end  to  his  missionary  activities  rather  than  on 
account  of  any  special  information  he  may  have  been  able  to 
give. 


IOC 


. 


* 


LAWS  GOVERNING  RELIGIOUS  PRACTICES 


The  three  following  statements  are  deducible  from 
the  records  of  the  Colony,  and  thereby  the  Pilgrims  are 
exonerated  of  the  charges  of  intolerance  often  brought 
against  them: 

1.  No  person  accused  of  witchcraft  was  ever  con¬ 
victed  or  punished  in  the  Colony  of  Plymouth. 

2.  No  one  was  ever  executed  or  mutilated  for  hold¬ 
ing  or  teaching  the  dbctrines  of  the  Quakers  or  of  any 
religious  body  in  the  life  of  the  Colony. 

3.  No  religious  qualification  w(as  ever  required  for 
the  exercise  of  the  right  to  vote  in  the  Pilgrim  Colony. 

The  true  attitude  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony  toward  the 
witchcraft  superstition  is  misunderstood  because  of  the 
identity  in  the  popular  mind  of  the  two  distinct  juris¬ 
dictions  of  the  Pilgrim  Colony  of  New  Plymouth  and  the 
Puritan  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  In  1692,  when  the 
witchcraft  frenzy  was  raging  in  Boston,  John  Alden,  son 
of  the  Pilgrim,  while  naval  commander  of  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  was  accused  of  witchcraft  at  the 
Puritan  capital..  The  trial  was  a  perversion  of  all  justice, 
and  is  a  blot  on  the  record  of  the  legal  history  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts.  To  the  charge  that  Alden  had  exercised  dia¬ 
bolical  agencies  upon  a  young  girl,  Justice  Gidney  de¬ 
manded  that  the  accused  confess  and  give  glory  to  God. 
Captain  Alden  answered  “that  he  hoped  he  should  always 
give  glory  to  God,  but  lie  would  never  gratify  the  devil,” 
and  was  in  consequence  committed  to  prison.  Escaping 
after  fifteen  weeks,  the  Captain  returned  to  his  relatives 
at  Duxbury,  making  his  arrival  late  at  night  with  the 
salutation  that  “he  was  come  from  the  devil,  and  the 


107 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


devil  was  after  him”  (Winsor’s  Duxbury,  215). 

In  all  nineteen  persons  accused  of  witchcraft  were 
hung  (not  burned,  as  popularly  understood)  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay.  The  record  at  Plymouth  is  as  follows:  In 
1661,  Dinah,  wife  of  Joseph  Sylvester,  of  Scituate,  claimed 
to  have  seen  the  wife  of  William  Holmes  in  conversation 
with  the  devil,  who  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  bear.  The 
husband,  Holmes,  brought  a  suit  for  slander  before  the 
General  Court,  and  Dame  Sylvester  was  declared  guilty 
and  ordered  (1)  to  be  publicly  whipped,  (2)  or  pay  the 
husband  five  pounds,  (3)  or  that  she  openly  confess  her 
slander  and  repay  costs  and  charges.  The  accuser  chose 
the  fatter  and  we  hear  no  more  of  witchcraft  in  Plymouth 
for  sixteen  years. 

In  1677,  Mary  Ingham,  an  elderly  matron,  was 
charged  with  bewitching  Mehitable,  daughter  of  Walter 
Woodworth,  causing  her  to  fall  into  violent  fits,  “and  so 
hath  greatly  languished,”  all  by  the  “help  of  the  devil,, 
in  a  way  of  witchcraft  or  sorcery.”  We  have  a  complete 
record  of  the  trial,  the  names  of  the  jury  and  presiding 
magistrate,  Governor  Josiah  Winslow.  The  jury  brought 
in  a  verdict  of  “not  guilty,”  and  these  two  trials  com¬ 
plete  the  total  history  of  the  witchcraft  madness  in  the 
Pilgrim  Colony.16 


NOTE  16 — Plymouth  was  remarkably  free  from  the  pre¬ 
vailing  superstitious  tfear  of  comets  and  similar  unusual  ap¬ 
pearances-  Bradford  makes  no  mention  of  these  appearances, 
although  Secretary  Nathaniel  Morton  shared  the  prevailing  fear. 

In  1668  the  Governor  and  Council  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
called  upon  the  clergy  to  intercede  against  the  impending  peril 
of  a  comet  then  seen  in  the  sky.  The  learned  Increase  Mather, 
afterwards  president  of  Harvard  College,  held  that  comets  had 
a  special  supernatural  significance-  The  records  at  Plymouth 
do  not  show  that  the  Governor  and  Assistants  gave  the  matter 
consideration. 


108 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


“ Thank  God,”  Goodwin  says,  “no  Quaker  was  put 
to  death  in  the  Pilgrim.  Republic.”  Yet  with  regret  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  laws  in  the  closing  days  of  the  Colony 
were  severe.  The  Quaker  of  the  time,  however,  was  by  no 
moans  the  mild,  peacealble  person  of  our  time  and  memory. 
“Thomas,  thou  liest;  thou  art  a  malicious  man;  thy 
clamorous  tongue  I  no  more  regard  than  the  dust  under 
my  feet ;  thou  are  like  a  scolding  woman ;  thou  pratest 
and  deridest  me.”  With  these  words  and  continual  in¬ 
terruptions,  the  Quaker,  Humphry  Norton,  addressed 
Governor  Prence,  when  brought  before  the  General  Court 
in  June  of  1658.  Norton  had  already  been  warned  away 
from  the  Colony  and  had  been  taken  to  the  Rhode  Island 
frontier  and  set  free.  On  his  second  appearance,  and 
above  abusive  words,  he  was  required  to  take  the  oath, 
according  to  law  required  of  all,  of  fidelity  to  England, 
and  refusing  to  do  so  was  whipped.  In  the  same  year 
John  Copeland  and  William  Braind  were  ordered  to  leave 
the  Colony  for  insulting  the  Court,  but  on  returning  six 
days  later,  were  whipped  for  contempt  of  court.  Besides 
some  ten  cases  of  banishment,  five  intruding  Quakers 
were  whipped,  but  for  contempt  of  court  rather  than  as 
a  punishment  for  their  belief. 

An  interesting  incident  of  the  short  three  years  of 
Quaker  persecution  in  the  Old  Colony  was  an  attempt  of 
four  delegates  from  the  court  to  “reduce  them  (the 
Quakers)  from  the  error  of  their  ways.”  Two  of  the 
delegates  attended  Quaker  meetings,  with  the  result  that 
they  became  convinced  that  the  members  of  the  sect  were 
not  fairly  treated,  but  no  Quaker  was  converted  from  the 
“error  of  his  ways.”  Isaac  Robinson,  son  of  the  pastor, 
one  of  the  delegates,  was  disenfranchised  because  of  the 
liberal  stand  taken  by  him  toward  the  persecuted  people. 
No  Quaker  was  hung,  and  no  Quaker’s  tongue  was  cut 

109 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


out,  as  popularly  supposed,  and  after  three  years  the 
furor  subsided,  and  intolerance  of  this  kind  never  re-ap¬ 
peared  in  Plymouth  Colony. 

Church  membership  was  never  required  as  a 
qualification  for  the  franchise  in  Plymouth  Colony.  Here 
we  have  a  clash  of  authority,  and  it  is  necessary  to  make 
a  careful  examination  of  the  records.  Thacher  says  (page 
81)  church  membership  was  an  indispensable  qualification 
for  freeman,  and  this  assertion  is  repeated  on  page  273. 
Goodwin  (415)  declares  that  in  Massachusetts  and  the  Col¬ 
ony  of  New  Haven  only  church  members  were  entitled  to 
vote  but  no  such  qualification  was  ever  required  in  Con¬ 
necticut  and  Plymouth. 

It  is  evident  Thacher  took  his  authority  from  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  of  the  united  colonies,  1643, 
where  it  is  agreed  that  the  commissioners  of  the  colonies 
shall  be  “in  Church  fellowship  with  us,”  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  voters  in  Plymouth  were  required  to  be  church 
members.  The  oath  of  a  freeman,  1636  (Brigham,  38), 
makes  no  such  restriction,  and  no  restriction  of  the  kind 
was  ever  made  in  the  Colony.  The  powerful  and  illiberal 
Colony  of  Massachusetts  with  the  backing  of  New  Haven 
forced  upon  the  Confederation  the  requirement  ithat  the 
commissioners  must  be  church  members,  but  liberal 
Plymouth  granted  the  franchise  without  regard  to  pro¬ 
fession  of  religion.  For  many  years  Standish  was  the 
most  powerful  man  in  the  Colony,  and  held  every  im¬ 
portant  office  at  Plymouth,  with  the  exception  of  that  of 
governor,  which  he,  as  military  commander,  could  not 
hold;  yet  Standish  was  not  a  member  of  the  Pilgrim 
Church,  and  probably  was  reared  in  the  Church  of  Rome. 
Although  he  lived  until  1656  he  was  never  a  commissioner 
of  the  united  colonies,  “the  narrow  policy  of  the  Con- 


110 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


federacy  in  restricting  the  commissionerships  to  church 
members,  deprived  that  board  of  the  benefit  of  his 
presence’ ’  (Goodwin,  449). 

As  an  instance  of  the  liberality  of  the  Pilgrims, 
Father  Druillette,  a  Jesuit  priest,  who  visited  Plymouth 
in  1650,  on  behalf  of  the  French  government,  mentions  in 
his  diary  that  he  was  received  courteously,  and  the  day 
being  Friday,  Governor  Bradford  provided  a  dinner  of 
fish  out  of  regard  to  the  faith  of  his  guest  (Goodwin,  458). 


The  last  election  of  the  Colony  was  held  on  June  12, 
1691,  and  the  officers  then  chosen  served  out  their  year. 
Before  the  next  election,  Governor  Phipps,  had  arrived 
from  England  with  a  charter  which  combined  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts,  the  Vineyard  Islands,  Maine  and  Nova 
Scotia  into  the  Royal  province  of  Massachusetts.  The  last 
Court  of  Assistants  met  April  15,  1692,  Governor  Brad¬ 
fords’  son  presiding,,  in  the  absence  of  Governor  Hinckley. 
The  old  forms  were  followed,  the  jurois  called,  and  as  a 
matter  of  form,  two  were  fined  for  being  absent,  and  cases 
on  the  docket  were  continued  until  the  next  term.  A  pub¬ 
lic  day  of  fasting  was  ordered — we  can  imagine  a  pause 
in  the  proceedings  as  the  significance  of  the  adjournment 
was  realized! — the  Court  adjourned,  and  the  Pilgrim  State 
came  to  an  end.17 

NOTE  17. — Before  the  end  of  the  independent  jurisdiction 
of  the  Colony,  and  while  one  of  the  Mayflower  passengers  was 
still  living  (see  page  65),  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  had 
settled  on  the  coast  of  Maine  and  as  far  south  as  Cape  May 


111 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


in  the  present  State  of  New  Jersey.  Yet  by  the  third  genera¬ 
tion  from  the  first  settlement  of  Cape  May,  all  memory  of  the 
Pilgrim  ancestry  of  the  first  inhabitants  was  lost. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  of  our  American  history  that  whole 
sections  of  our  country  are  populated  by  successive  generations, 
who  have  lost  all  track  of  their  original  ancestors- 

Probably  few  of  the  mountaineers  of  the  Southern  States, 
unmistakably  Scotch -Irish  in  features  and  traits,  can  give  any 
clear  account  of  their  first  American  ancestors,  or  the  incentive 
of  their  migration  to  this  country.  The  ship  on  which  they 
came,  the  date  of  arrival  and  the  condition  of  life  left  behind 
in  the  old  country,  are  facts  unknown,  involved  in  the  obscurity 
of  the  past. 

The  settlement  of  the  southern  extremity  of  New  Jersey 
by  scattered  families  of  Swedes  is  known  to  us  through  the 
diary  of  the  Swedish  pastor,  Oampanius,  and  other  early  writers- 
Oampanius  made  a  pastoral  visit  to  the  scattered  families  of 
his  flock  as  early  as  1648.  entering  the  flolowing  in  his  diary: 
“On  the  sixteenth  day  of  May,  1648,  having  obtained  a  proper 
passport  from  the  governor  and  council,  I  sailed  in  the  Lord’s 
name,  with  my  family  from  Elfsborg,  in  New  Sweden,  on  board 
the  ship  ‘Swan,’  and  on  the  eighteenth  came  -into  the  bay,  and 
on  the  nineteenth  we  came  to  Cape  May.”  Doubtless  some  of 
the  s^ock  of  the  first  Swedish  settlements,  and  certain  of  their 
names,  still  survive  in  Southern  Jersey,  possessing  no  certainty 
of  their  first  American  ancestors  or  what  influenced  them  to 
migrate  to  this  country. 

T  o  the  later  arrivals  in  Cape  May,  the  whalemen  who  first 
established  a  station  at  Long  Island  and  in  the  course  of  time 
made  a  permanent  settlement  at  the  Cape,  we  are  indebted  for 
the  implanting  upon  these  shores  of  the  Pilgrim  stock,  increas¬ 
ing  in  time  through  inter- marriage  with  the  associated  families, 
until  today  within  the  county  of  Gape  May  there  are  undoubted¬ 
ly  more  descendants  of  the  Mayflower  in  a  given  area  than  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  even  in  Plymouth  county,  the  place  of 
the  first  landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Here  in  Cape  May,  a  grand¬ 
daughter  of  the  Pilgrim  John  Howland  died;  here  her  children 
and  grandchildren  lived,  inter -marrying  as  time  went  on  with 
the  old  Cape  May  families,  the  Eldredges,  Hughes,  Learning, 
Stites,  Crowell,  Edmunds,  Cresse,  Foster,  Hand,  Mecray,  Ben¬ 
nett,  Schellenger,  Matthews,  Hall,  Parsons,  Russell,  Rice,  Beas¬ 
ley,  Church,  Merritt,  Corson,  Ludlam,  Reeves,  Schenck,  Barnes 
and  other  of  the  contiguous  families  of  the  early  days  of  Cape 
May. 

Yet  it  is  a  most  astonishing  fact  in  our  history  that  no  hint 
of  the  Pilgrim  ancestry  of  the  original  settlers  of  the  county  is 
found  in  any  of  the  early  documents-  The  several  writers  of 
early  history  of  the  county  have  shown  no  knowledge  of  the 

112 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


most  interesting’  fact  of  our  history,  namely,  that  the  stock 
of  the  Pilgrim  fathers  wias  brought  here  by  the  early  whale¬ 
men.  Not  until  within  a  few  years  has  any  member  of  the 
lost  colony  of  Mayflower  descendants  entertained  anv  suspicion 
of  the  distinguished  ancestry  of  probably  the  majority  of  the 
inhaitants  of  the  countv.  Unlike  the  settlers  of  Plymouth, 
where  the  records  give  an  accurate  account  of  the  arrival 
of  each  family — the  name  of  the  ship  on  which  they  came  and 
the  increase  of  children  and  grandchildren,  here  in  Cape  May 
no  document  exists  to  inform  us  of  the  exact  date  of  the  arrival 
of  the  first  New  England  settlers  or  the  ship — probably  a  whale¬ 
boat — on  which  their  families  arrived. 

No  record  of  births,  deaths  and  marriages  was  kept  by  the 
early  colonists  at  Cape  May  and  the  genealogical  data  must  be 
collected  from  wills,  deeds  and  gravestone  inscriptions,  and  in 
some  instances  by  the  inspection  of  church  and  Friend  meeting 
registers,  kept  without  thie  county,  but  rarely  within. 


113 


Itblmgrapby 


(1)  Bradford’s  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation.  Official 

copy  issued  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  1898. 

(2)  Young’s  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims,  Boston,  1844. 

Containing  Mourt’s  Relation,  Winslow’s  Brief 
Narration,  and  Governor  Bradford’s  Dialogue. 

(3)  Bradford’s  Letter  Book,  a  publication  of  the  Massa¬ 

chusetts  Society  of  Mayflower  Descendants,  1906. 

(4)  Pilgrim  Memorials  and  Guide  to  Plymouth,  Russell, 

1855,  Boston. 

(5)  History  of  Plymouth,  Thacher,  2nd  edition,  Boston, 

1835. 

(6)  Goodwin’s  Pilgrim  Republic,  Boston,  1888. 

(7)  20  volumes  of  The  Pilgrim  Descendants,  published  by 

the  Massachusetts  Society  Mayflower  Descend¬ 
ants. 

(8)  New  England  Chronology,  Prince,  Boston,  1736. 

(9)  Dexter’s  Congregationalism,  Boston,  1865. 

(10)  Waddington’s  Track  of  the  Hidden  Church,  Bos¬ 

ton,  1863. 

(11)  Brigham’s  Laws  of  Plymouth  Colony,  published  by 

State  of  Massachusetts,  1836. 

(12)  Plymouth  Colony  Law  and  Church  Records. 

(13)  The  Psychology  of  Suggestion,  Boris  Sidis,  M.  D., 

New  York,  1898. 


ifttfox 


ABORIGINES,  treatment  of  by  Pilgrims  65. 

ADAMS,  John  Quincy,  on  Social  Compact  of  Pilgrims,  78. 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  SACRAMENTS,  by  laymen,  allowed  by 
theory  of  Congregationalism — rule  at  Plymouth,  34. 

ALDEN,  Betty,  novel  by  Jane  Austin,  16,  69. 

Alden,  David,  son  of  the  Pilgrim,  59. 

Alden,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John  and  Priscilla,  wife  of  William 
Peabody,  41,  note. 

Alden,  John  the  Pilgrim,  husband  of  Priscilla  Mullins,  long  life, 
death,  40,  note,  attitude  toward  Quakers,  decline  from  liber¬ 
ality,  57,  note,  joins  Pilgrims  in  England,  57,  sons  of  59,  myth 
of  part  in  “Courtship  of  Myles  Standish,”  67,  descendants,  77, 
note. 

Alden,  John,  son  of  Pilgrim,  accused  of  witchcraft,  107,  108. 

Alden,  Jonathan,  son  of  the  Pilgrim,  59. 

Alden,  Joseph,  son  of  the  Pilgrim,  59. 

Alden,  Sarah,  daughter  of  John  and  Priscilla,  69. 

Alden,  Rev.  Timothy,  “Epitaphs,”  origin  of  legend  of  poem,  “Court¬ 
ship  of  Myles  Standish,’  16,  67,  69,  note. 

ALLERTON,  Isaac,  93. 

Allerton,  Mary,  wife  of  Elder  Cushman,  long  life  of,  last  of  the 
Pilgrims,  40,  note,  65. 

ANCESTORS,  food  of,  14. 

ANCESTRY,  indifference  of  first  generations  of  Pilgrims,  11. 

ANGLICANISM,  of  17th  century,  source  of  authority,  49. 

ANN,  ship,  76,  note. 

ANTICHRIST,  canon  law  so  designated,  48. 

AQUINAS,  SAINT  THOMAS,  12. 

ARISTOTLE,  12. 

ARMINIANS,  Robinsons  dispute  with,  50. 

ARMINIANISM  and  Calvinism,  51. 

ARTICLES,  not  creeds,  considered  statement  of  faith  of  Church  of 
England,  49. 

Articles  of  Confederation,  110. 

ASSISTANTS,  Board  of,  65,  93,  last  meeting  and  end  of  Plymouth 
Colony,  111. 

ASTONISHMENT  of  Pilgrim,  at  dignity  conferred  upon  him  by 
history,  11. 

AUSTIN,  JANE,  novels  by,  16,  31,  note. 

B 

BARBARA,  second  wife  to  Captain  Myles  Standish,  70. 

BARNES  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

BARNSTABLE  COUNTY,  97. 

BAPTISM,  right  of  laymen  to  administer,  rule  at  Plymouth,  34. 

BAYLIES,  Judge,  Historical  Memoir  of  New  Plymouth,  12,  13. 


115 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


BEASLEY  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

BELLINGHAM,  Governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  57. 
BENNETT  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

Bennett,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Morton,  descendants,  77,  note. 
BESTIALITY,  capital  crime,  103. 

“BETTY  ALDEN,”  novel  by  Jane  Austin,  16. 

BIBLE  and  Blunderbuss,  31. 

BILLINGTON,  John,  first  murderer  executed  in  New  England, 
member  of  Pilgrim  band,  99,  100. 

BISHOPS,  authority  of  recognized  by  Pilgrims  at  Leyden,  48,  49. 
BLACKSTONE,  commentaries. 

Blackstone,  Rev.  William,  opinion  of  Boston  Puritans,  58,  note. 
BLASPHEMY,  capital  crime,  102. 

BOLSHEVISTS  OUTBREAK,  on  Mayflower,  76,  77. 

BONUM,  George,  41,  note. 

BOSTON,  Massachusetts  Bay,  cases  of  witchcraft  in,  19. 
BRADFORD,  name,  11. 

Bradford,  Alice,  wife  of  Governor  William,  41,  note. 

Bradford,  Joseph,  son  of  Governor  William,  59. 

Bradford,  Mercy,  daughter  of  Governor  William,  59. 

Bradford,  Governor  William,  Manuscript  History  of  New  Plymouth, 
loss  of  15,  on  change  in  Pilgrim  church  of  second  generation, 
29,  Dialogue,  41,  Letter  Book,  50,  recovery  of  manuscript  his¬ 
tory,  primary  authority  of,  68,  69,  note,  election  to  office  of 
governor,  93,  liberality  of,  111. 

Bradford,  William,  son  of  Governor  Bradford,  59. 

BRAIND,  William,  109. 

BRETT,  William,  83. 

BREWSTER,  ELDER  WILLIAM,  lawsuits,  29,  note,  spiritual  ad¬ 
viser  of  Pilgrims,  31,  denied  by  Pastor  Robinson  right  to  ad¬ 
minister  sacraments,  34,  education,  40,  note,  signs  the  Seven 
Articles  of  the  church  in  Holland,  49. 

BRIGHAM,  Laws  of  Plymouth  Colony,  66. 

BRISTOL  COUNTY,  97. 

BRITISH  EMPIRE  in  North  America,  13. 

BROWN,  Dorothy,  41,  note. 

C 

CALVINISM,  in  New  England  and  in  Pilgrim  Church,  25,  28,  Rob¬ 
inson  on  50,  51,  doctrine  of  election,  60. 

CAMPANIUS,  Swedish  pastor,  112. 

CANT,  in  Pilgrim  literature,  30,  31. 

CANNON  LAW,  called  antichrist,  48. 

CAPE  COD,  52,  landing  of  Pilgrims  accidental,  76. 

CAPE  MAY,  New  Jersey,  descendants  of  Pilgrims  in,  77,  note,  111, 
note. 

CAPITAL  CRIMES,  list  of  in  Pilgrim  State,  102-104. 

CARPENTER,  Juliana,  wife  of  George  Morton,  76,  note. 

Carpenter,  Mary,  41. 

CARVER,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Governor  Carver,  70,  71. 

Carver,  Governor,  30,  31. 

CATTLE,  imported  into  colony,  date  of,  68. 


116 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


CHANGE  in  date  of  Bradford,  made  by  Dr.  Prince  because  of  re¬ 
ligious  scruple,  30. 

Change,  in  theological  outlook  with  the  death  of  first  generation 
of  Pilgrims,  51,  55,  58. 

CHARITY  OF  PILGRIMS,  compared  with  other  bodies  of  separat¬ 
ists,  48,  in  treatment  of  Lyford,  55,  56. 

CHARTER,  efforts  of  Pilgrims  in  Holland  to  secure,  75. 

CHAUNCY,  Rev.  Charles,  57. 

CHEEVER,  Rev.  Dr.,  error  as  to  mother  of  Captain  Standish’s 
children,  70. 

CHRONOLOGY,  New  England,  by  Dr.  Prince,  30. 

CHURCH,  family,  Pilgrim  ancestry  of.  77,  note,  112. 

“CHURCH,”  meaning  of  in  nomenclature  of  Congregationalism,  32. 

Church  and  congregation,  37. 

Church,  Pilgrim,  first  parish  becomes  Unitarian,  35,  39,  44,  61. 

Church  of  England  divines,  theory  of  church.  Articles  not  creeds 
statement  of  belief,  49. 

Church,  members  of,  number  in  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Plymouth, 
43. 

Church  membership,  not  required  as  qualification  for  franchise, 

110. 

Church  property,  disposal  of  at  time  of  Unitarian  upheaval,  44. 

Church  records  of  Plymouth,  41,  51. 

Churches,  formation  of,  37. 

CLARn,  Thomas,  41,  note. 

CLERGY,  of  Church  of  England,  charged  with  pomp  and  covet¬ 
ousness,  47. 

Clergy,  Puritan,  at  Boston,  forbidden  to  officiate  at  marriages,  34, 
note. 

COLD  SPRING,  New  Jersey,  29,  note. 

COLE,  James,  41,  note. 

COLONY  OF  PLYMOUTH,  beginning  and  end,  65,  111. 

Colony,  Plymouth,  attitude  in  witchcraft  persecutions,  19,  107,  108. 

COMPACT  OF  PILGRIMS  signed  in  cabin  of  Mayflower,  12,  65, 

John  Quincy  Adams  on,  77,  words  of,  78. 

COMETS,  fear  of,  108,  note. 

COMMISSIONERS  of  United  Colonies  of  New  England,  80,  re¬ 
quired  to  be  church  members,  110. 

COMMUNISTIC  LIFE  of  Pilgrims  in  Holland,  29,  note. 

COMMUNITY  OF  LABOR  of  Pilgrims,  12. 

COMMUNISM,  in  Plymouth  Colony,  Winslow  on,  Bradford’s  opinion 
of,  89. 

COMMUNION,  not  celebrated  at  Plymouth  during  first  years,  34. 

COMMON  LAW  OF  ENGLAND,  authority  in  Colony,  93,  94. 

CONDUCT,  Laws  governing,  99  et  seq. 

CONFEDERATION  of  New  England  Colonies,  80. 

CONGREGATIONALISM,  later  development  of.  nomemclature  of. 
32,  fundamental  law  as  to  ordination,  33,  founding  of  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay.  33,  note. 

CONNECTICUT,  Colony  of,  requirements  of  voters.  9,  110. 

CONSPIRACY,  against  jurisdiction  of  Colony  capital  crime,  102. 


117 


TEE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


CONTRACTS  and  Torts,  legislation  governing,  97. 

CONTRAST  between  tne  enlightened  liberality  of  first  generation 
of  Pilgrims  and  generations  immediately  following,  51  to  56. 
CONVOCATION,  authority  of,  49. 

COTTON  FAMILY,  27,  note. 

Cotton,  Hannah,  27,  note. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  Puritan  pastor  at  Boston,  25,  opinion  of  demo¬ 
cracy,  58,  note. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  son  of  Boston  pastor,  27,  note,  pastor  at  Plym¬ 
outh,  1667-1654,  39. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  son  of  Plymouth  pastor,  27,  note. 

Cotton,  Josiah,  25,  26,  family,  27,  note. 

Cotton,  Mary,  27,  note. 

Cotton,  Sophia,  27,  note. 

Cotton,  Colonel  Theophilus,  officer  in  Revolution,  15. 

COPELaND,  John,  109. 

CuOPER,  Priscilla,  41,  note. 

CORSON  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry  of,  112. 

COUNTIES,  of  Pilgrim  State,  79,  division  of  colony  into,  97. 
COURT  OF  ASSISTANTS,  last  meeting  of.  111. 

COURTS,  primitive,  of  Colony,  93. 

“COURTSHIP  OF  MYLES  STANDISH,”  16,  improbability  and  in¬ 
accuracy  of  poem,  66-69. 

COVENANT,  of  Pilgrim  and  Congregational  churches,  contract 
nature  of,  37,  formulated  by  each  congregation,  49,  note.  Pil¬ 
grim  covenant  compared  with  historic  creeds,  60,  indefiniteness 
of,  60,  61. 

CRANMER,  theory  of  church,  38. 

CREED,  no  accepted  formula  in  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  congrega¬ 
tions,  49,  note,  60. 

CREEDS,  of  Church  of  England  and  Articles  of  Religion,  49. 
CRESSE  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

CRIMINAL  LAWS  of  Pilgrim  State,  99  et  seq. 

CRIMES,  capital,  102-104. 

CROSWELL,  Rev.  Andrew,  26. 

CROWELL  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry  of,  112. 

CRUSADERS  and  Pilgrims,  12. 

CULT  of  the  Pilgrims,  beginning  of,  13. 

CURSING  father  or  mother,  capital  crime,  104. 

CUSHMAN,  Robert,  on  treatment  of  Indians  by  Pilgrims,  86,  87, 
on  communism,  90,  note. 

Cushman,  Elder  Thomas,  40,  family,  40,  note,  65. 

D 

DATE  in  Bradford  changed  by  Dr.  Prince,  30. 

DAVIS,  Judge,  quoted,  55. 

DEACOa,  office  of,  34,  38. 

DEACONESS,  office  of  in  Pilgrim  church,  41. 

DEATH  PENALTY,  57. 

DEMOCRACY,  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  not  fully  accepted  by  Pil¬ 
grims,  40,  Rev.  John  Cotton’s  opinion  of,  58,  note,  in  infant 
Pilgrim  State,  79. 


118 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


DEMONOLOGY,  treatise  by  King  James  I.,  17. 

DENIAL  of  right  of  laymen  to  administer  the  sacraments,  34. 

DE  RASIERS,  Isaac,  visit  to  Plymouth,  description  of  town,  42. 
DESCENDANTS  of  Pilgrims,  ignorant  of  ancestry,  11. 

DEXTER,  Rev.  Dr.,  32,  on  authority  of  laymen  to  administer  the 
sacraments,  34. 

DISOBEDIENCE  to  parents,  penalty,  104. 

DOANE,  Deacon  John,  long  life  of,  41,  note. 

DOTY,  Edward,  100. 

DOUBLEDAlt,  William,  husband  of  Jane  Learning,  71,  note. 
DRUILLETTE,  Father,  courteous  treatment  by  Pilgrims,  111. 
DRUNKENNESS,  laws  against,  101,  102. 

DUELLING  at  Plymouth,  100. 

DUTCH,  alleged  bribing  of  captain  of  Mayflower  by,  76,  note. 

n 

EARLY  PILGRIM  CHURCH,  polity  of,  37. 

Early  titles  of  Pilgrims,  15. 

EATON  Francis,  descendants  of,  77,  note. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  LAW  in  Massachusetts,  33. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY  OF  PILGRIM  CHURCH,  summary  of, 
37. 

EDDY,  Elizabeth,  41,  note. 

Eddy,  Samuel,  41,  note. 

EDMUNDS  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

EDWARDS,  Rev.  Jonathan,  28. 

ELDERS,  Ruling,  office  of,  38,  contrary  to  Congregation  polity,  40. 
ELDREDGE  FAMILY,  77,  note,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

Eldredge,  Eli,  son  of  William,  71,  note. 

Eldredge,  Esther,  daughter  of  William,  71,  note. 

Eldredge,  Hannah,  daughter  of  William,  71,  note. 

Eldredge,  Jehu,  son  of  William,  71,  note. 

Eldredge,  John,  son  of  William,  71,  note. 

Eldredge,  Samuel,  husband  of  Mercy  Learning,  71,  note. 

Eldredge,  William,  husband  of  Esther  Learning,  71,  note. 
ELECTION,  Calvinistic  doctrine  of,  60. 

ENACTMENTS,  general,  94,  95. 

END  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  65,  111. 

ENDICOTT,  Governor,  33,  note,  84. 

ENGLISH  STATUTES,  in  force  in  Plymouth  Colony.  97. 
ENLIGHTENED  LIBERALITY  OF  PILGRIMS  of  first  generation. 
48,  50,  51. 

EPISCOPAL  CLERGYMEN,  re-ordained  by  Congregational  form,  33. 
“EPITAPHS,”  by  Rev.  Timothy  Alden,  16,  67. 

ETHICS,  of  transactions  with  Indians,  83-88. 

EVANGELICAL  charity  of  Robinson,  50. 

Evangelical  period  of  Pilgrim  church,  25. 

EXECUTIONS,  for  capital  crimes,  104,  105. 

Executions,  under  law  against  witchcraft,  9,  108. 

P 

FAITH  OF  ROBINSON,  claimed  by  both  Unitarians  and  Orthodox 
Congregationalists,  30. 


119 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


FALSE  WITNESS,  crime  of,  104. 

FAMILIAR  SPIRIT,  consulting  a  capital  crime,  103. 

FAMILY  RECORDS,  punishment  for  “premature  opening”  of,  in¬ 
stances,  101,  note. 

FANATICISM,  wrongly  attributed  to  Pilgrims,  69. 

FAREWELL  ADDRESS,  of  Robinson,  50. 

FAUNCE,  Elder  Thomas,  15,  Identification  of  Plymouth  Rock  by, 
28,  last  of  Ruling  Elders,  40,  note,  parents,  77,  note. 

Faunce,  Patience,  daughter  of  the  Elder,  long  life  of,  40,  note. 
FEDERATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES,  28,  80. 

FINAL  WORD  OF  REVELATION,  Pilgrim  belief  as  to,  51. 
FINNEY,  Phebe,  41,  note. 

Finney,  Deacon  Robert,  41,  note. 

FIRST  CELEBRATION  OF  FOREFATHERS’  DAY,  13,  14. 

“FIRST  CHURCH  OF  THE  PILGRIMS,”  at  Plymouth,  Unitarian- 
lsm,  27,  pastors  of,  30,  39,  becomes  Unitarian,  44,  Covenant  of, 
60. 

FIRST  PILGRIM  PASTOR,  34. 

FIRST  WINTER,  at  Plymouth,  68. 

FITZ,  Richard,  Separatist  leaders,  47. 

FOREFATHERS  DAY,  first  celebration,  13. 

FORTUNE,  ship,  79. 

FOSTER  family,  77,  note,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

Foster,  Mercy,  wife  of  Ebenezer  Morton,  77,  note. 

FRANCHISE,  requirements  for  in  Plymouth  and  other  New  Eng¬ 
land  colonies,  107. 

FULLER  Dr.,  son  of  Edward,  34,  44,  note. 

Fuller,  Rev.  Samuel,  first  pastor  at  Middleborough,  39,  40. 
FUNERALS,  early,  without  religious  rites,  34,  note. 

O 

GARLICK,  John,  71,  note. 

GENERAL  COURT,  of  Colony,  96. 

“GENERAL  FUNDAMENTALS,”  97. 

GOODWIN,  John  Abbott,  author  of  “Pilgrim  Republic,”  on  harden¬ 
ing  of  ecclesiastical  of  second  generation  at  Plymouth,  28, 
authority  of,  32. 

GORHAM,  Hannah,  daughter  of  Captain  John,  71,  note. 

Gorham,  Captain  John,  husband  of  Desire  Howland,  death  of,  71, 
note. 

GRAND  JURY,  95. 

“GREAT  AND  GENERAL  COURT,”  96. 

GREAT  PLAGUE,  extent  of,  86,  note. 


HALIFAX,  Massachusetts,  27,  note. 

HALL  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

HAND  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

Hand,  Deborah,  wife  of  Christopher  Learning,  71,  note. 
HANFORD,  Margaret,  wife  of  Isaac  Robinson,  53,  note. 
HARVARD  COLLEGE,  27,  note,  president  of  and  comets,  108. 

120 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 


HENRY  VIII.,  severity  of  laws  under,  17. 

HIGGINSON,  Rev.  Frances,  33,  note. 

HINCKLEY,  Governor,  111. 

HISTORICAL  MEMOIRS  OF  NEW  PLYMOUTH,  by  Judge  Balies, 
quoted,  12,  13. 

HOLLAND,  theology  of  Pilgrims  before  migration,  45. 

Holland,  migration  from,  12,  communistic  life  of  Pilgrims  in,  29, 
note. 

HOLLEY,  Rev.  Horace,  15. 

HOPKINS,  Stephen,  the  Pilgrim,  descendants,  77,  note,  100. 

HOWE,  Rev.  Elbridge  Gerry,  27,  note. 

HOWLAND,  Arthur,  brother  of  the  Pilgrim,  liberal  attitude  toward 
Quakers,  descendants  of,  66,  note. 

Howland,  Desire,  daughter  of  the  Pilgrim,  wife  of  Captain  John 
Gorham,  descendants,  71,  note. 

Howland,  Henry,  brother  of  John,  liberality  of,  66,  note. 

Howland,  John  the  Pilgrim,  40,  note,  attitude  toward  Quakers,  67, 
note,  wife  of,  70,  descendants,  71,  note,  77,  note.  111,  112. 

Howland,  John,  president  of  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  70,  71. 

Howland,  Zoeth,  son  of  Henry,  66,  note. 

HUBBARD,  author  of  History  of  New  England,  quoted,  94. 

HUDSON  RIVER,  intended  destination  of  Pilgrim  migration,  76, 
note. 

HUGHES  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

Hughes,  Rev.  Daniel  Lawrence,  D.  D.,  29,  note. 

Hughes,  Jacob,  second  husband  of  Priscilla  Learning,  71,  note. 

HUTCHINSON,  Governor,  13,  99,  note. 

X 

IDLENESS,  law  against,  101. 

IDOLATRY,  capital  crime,  102. 

INDIFFERENCE  of  first  descendants  to  genealogical  records,  11. 

INDIANS,  killing  of  by  Pilgrims,  51,  captains  in  King  Philip’s  war, 
Increase  Mather’s  words  on  death  of,  53,  treatment  of  prisoners 
after  King  Philip’s  War,  54,  55,  lament  at  loss  of  lands,  85. 
note,  general  treatment  of  by  Pilgrims,  88,  native  magistrates, 
88,  note. 

INTOLERANCE,  Puritan,  toward  Quakers,  54.  note. 

Intolerance,  Pilgrims  exonerated  of  charge,  107. 

J 

JAMES  I.,  treatise  on  Demonology,  17. 

JEWISH  DISPENSATION,  preference  of  ancestors  for,  55. 

JONES,  captain  of  Mayflower,  31,  accused  of  accepting  bribe,  69, 
note,  alleged  treachery  of,  76.  note,  101. 

JURISDICTION  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  duration  of,  last  court, 
9,  11,  111. 

JURY,  trial  by,  93. 

K 

KEITH,  Rev.  Ja.mes,  pastor  at  Bridgewater,  humanity  of,  54. 

KENNEBEC  RIVER.  Pilgrim  lands  on,  79. 

KING,  authority  of  to  appoint  bishops,  48,  49. 


121 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


KING  PHILIP,  skull  exposed  at  Plymouth,  40,  note,  Increase  Math¬ 
ers  words  on  death  of,  53,  son  of,  treatment  at  Plymouth,  54. 
KING  PHILIP’S  WAR,  53,  105. 

KING,  Samuel,  41,  note. 

KING’S  CHAPEL,  Boston,  becomes  Unitarian,  61. 

KNOX,  general,  85,  note. 

I. 

LABOR,  community  of  at  Plymouth,  12. 

LAITY,  more  liberal  than  clergy,  55. 

LAMENT  of  Indians  at  loss  of  lands,  85,  note. 

LAND,  common  ownership  at  Plymouth,  12,  early  titles,  83  value 
of  to  Indians,  84,  note,  moral  title  of  Pilgrims,  87,  S8,  first 
division,  89,  second  division  of  1627,  90. 

LAST  DAYS  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  111. 

LAWS,  increasing  severity  of,  57,  general  discussion,  65,  oral,  93, 
criminal,  99  et  seq. 

LAWSUITS,  among  colonists,  29,  note. 

LAYMEN,  right  of,  under  Congregational  rule,  to  administer  the 
Lord’s  Super,  34,  power  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  44. 
LEAMING  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  71,  note,  112. 

Learning,  Elizabeth,  71,  note. 

Learning,  Esther,  wife  of  William  Eldredge,  71,  note. 

Learning,  Christopher,  71,  note. 

Learning,  Jane,  wife  of  William  Doubleday,  71,  note. 

Learning,  Mercy,  wife  of  Samuel  Eldredge,  71,  note. 

Learning,  Priscilla,  wife  of  John  Stites  and  Jacob  Hughes,  71,  note. 
Learning,  Phebe,  wife  of  John  Garlick,  71,  note. 

Learning,  Thomas,  71,  note. 

LEGEND,  Pilgrim,  progressive  development  of,  69,  note. 
LEGISLATION,  of  Plymouth  Colony,  65. 

LETTER  BOOK,  Governor  Bradford’s  quoted,  50. 

LETTER,  of  Robinson  to  Standish  regarding  killing  of  Indians  at 
Weymouth,  51,  52. 

LETTICE,  Anna,  41,  note. 

LEVITICAL  LAW,  57,  influence  upon  legislation,  104. 

LEYDEN,  Holland,  11,  theology  of  Pilgrims  before  migration,  47, 
congregation  at,  migration  of,  53,  note,  75. 

LEYDEN  STREET,  Plymouth,  29. 

LIBERALITY  OF  PILGRIMS,  48,  55,  56,  110. 

LIBERTY,  foundations  laid  by  Pilgrims,  13. 

LINCOLN,  Countess  of,  75. 

Lincoln,  Earl  of,  75. 

LISTER,  Edward,  100. 

LITTLE,  Rev.  Ephraim,  pastor  at  Plymouth,  39. 

LOCAL  CONGREGATION,  authority  of,  37. 

LONDON,  Bishop  of,  100,  note. 

LONGEVITY,  of  Pilgrims  and  early  colonists,  40,  note. 

LONGFELLOW,  poem,  "Courtship  of  Myles  Standish,”  9,  16,  origin 
of  legend,  66,  67,  improbability  and  inaccuracy  of  poem,  68,  69. 
LONG  PARLIAMENT,  18. 


122 


OF  TEE  PILGRIM  STATE 

LORD’S  DAY,  prejudice  influencing-  exactness  in  historical  state¬ 
ment,  30. 

LORD’S  SUPPER,  right,  under  Congregational  rule,  of  laymen  to 
administer,  rule  at  Plymouth,  34. 

LUDLAM  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

LUTHER,  approval  of  bunring  of  witches,  17. 

LUTHERANS,  Robinson  on,  50. 

LYFORD,  Rev.  John,  conviction  of  by  Pilgrim  court,  55,  confession, 
treatment  at  Plymouth,  56. 

LYING,  penalty,  103. 

M 

MAGISTRATES,  Indian,  88,  note. 

MAGNA  CHARTER,  12. 

MANSLAUGHTER,  capital  crime,  102. 

MARRIAGES,  early  not  performed  by  clergy,  34,  note. 
MASSACHUSETTS  BAY,  Colony  of,  witchcraft  madness,  18,  im¬ 
morality  in  57,  voters  required  to  be  church  members,  107. 
MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  LIBRARY,  99,  note. 

MASSASOIT,  85. 

MATHER  FAMILY,  53,  note. 

Mather,  Cotton,  “Strange  Occurrence,”  seen  by,  witchcraft  cases, 
18,  19,  parents,  53,  note,  letter  of  to  Rev.  John  Higginson  re¬ 
garding  William  Penn’s  ship,  54,  note. 

Mather,  Increase,  words  on  Indian  leaders  in  King  Philip’s  War, 
removes  jaw  from  Philip’s  skull,  53,  meaning  of  comets,  108, 
note. 

Mather,  Richard,  father  of  Increase,  53,  note. 

MATTHEWS  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

MARTIN,  treasurer  of  Mayflower,  30,  31. 

MAYFLOWER,  return  of,  79,  “Log”  of,  99,  note. 

MAYFLOWER  DESCENDANT,  publication,  43. 

Mayflower  Descendants  in  Cape  May  County,  9,  29,  note.  111,  112. 
MECRAY  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

MEMBERSHIP  in  Pilgrim  church,  43. 

MEMORIAL,  Morton’s  authority  of,  76,  note. 

MERCHANT  ADVENTURERS,  79.  * 

MERRITT  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

MITCHELL,  Experience,  41,  note. 

MIDDLEBOROUGH,  Plymouth  County,  39,  104. 

“MINISTER,”  title,  39. 

Minister  tax,  opposition  to,  44,  note. 

MINISTRY,  the,  and  secular  employment,  38,  note. 

MORAL  TITLE,  of  Pilgrims  to  land,  87,  88. 

MORTON  FAMILY,  76,  note. 

Morton,  Ebenezer,  son  of  John,  descendants,  77,  note. 

Morton,  Ephraim,  77,  note. 

Morton,  George,  76,  note. 

Morton,  John,  son  of  Ebenezer,  77,  note. 

Morton,  Lucy,  wife  of  Jabez  Soule,  77,  note, 

Morton,  Marcus,  ancestry,  77,  note. 


123 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


Morton,  Secretary,  Nathaniel,  accusation  against  Captain  Jones  of 
the  Mayflower,  69,  note,  fear  of  comets,  108,  note. 

Morton,  of  Merrymount,  auther  of  “New  England  Canaan,”  86. 
Morton,  Patience,  daughter  of  George,  77,  note. 

MONASTIC  ORDERS,  and  Pilgrims,  12. 

MOURT’S  RELATIONS,  30. 

MULLINS,  Priscilla,  myth  regarding  courtship  of  by  Myles  Stand- 
ish,  9,  67,  68,  (see  Longfellow). 

Mullins,  William,  father  of  Priscilla,  67,  descendants,  77,  note. 
MYTHOLOGICAL  and  legendary  elements  in  Pilgrim  history,  9,  71, 
72. 

M1THS,  Pilgrim,  period  in  which  they  arose,  71. 

2* 

“NAMELESS  NOBLEMAN',”  novel  by  Jane  Austin,  69. 

NAMES,  Puritan  and  Pilgrim,  58,  59. 

NATIVES,  deceived  by  colonists,  85,  note. 

NELSON,  Thomas,  41,  note. 

Nelson,  Hope,  wife  of  Thomas,  41,  note. 

NEW  ENGLAND,  President  and  Council  of,  79. 

New  England,  source  of  Colonies,  13. 

New  England  Chronology,  Dr.  Prince,  on  Pilgrim  ecclesiastical 
polity,  37,  describes  Bradford’s  M.S.,  99,  note. 

New  England  Congregationalism  and  Pilgrim  church,  35. 

New  England  Unitarianism,  39. 

NEW  HAVEN,  Colony  of,  church  membership  and  the  franchise, 
9,  110. 

NEW  JERSEY  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  9. 

“NEW  LIGHT,”  Robinson’s  doctrine  of,  50,  61. 

NEW  PLYMOUTH  and  Massachusetts  Bay,  13. 

NEW  TESTAMENT,  texts  from  rarely  used,  54. 

NEW  YORK,  85,  note. 

NORTON,  Humphrey,  Quaker,  109. 

NOTE  BOOK,  Bradfords,  99. 

NOVA  SCOTIA,  111. 

O 

OBSERVANCE  OF  SABBATH,  by  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  30. 
OFFICERS  OF  CHURCH,  37,  38. 

ORDERS  OF  COURT,  94. 

ORDINATION,  Congregational,  33,  hesitation  of  Pilgrims  to  use 
Congregational  form,  33,  34,  nature  of,  38,  note. 

Ordination,  of  first  Congregational  pastor  in  Massachusetts,  33, 
note. 

ORIGIN  OF  PILGRIM  LEGEND,  67,  68,  69,  70,  71. 

OLD  COLONY  CLUB,  organization  of,  13. 

OLD  STYLE,  in  Plymouth  County,  31,  note. 

OLD  TESTAMENT  and  New  Testament,  preference  of  ancestors, 
55,  57. 

Old  Testament  names  of  later  generations  of  Pilgrim  families,  58, 
59,  note. 

“OUR  PILGRIM  FATHERS,”  claim  of  many,  29,  note. 


124 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


ORTHODOX  Congregationalism,  faith  of  Robinson  claimed  by,  30. 
Orthodox  Churches  and  Unitarianism,  44. 

P 

PARANOIA  PEiRSECUTA,  in  witchcraft  delusion,  17. 

PARISH,  Congregational,  32. 

PARTRIDGE,  Rev.  Ralph,  Duxbury  pastor,  57. 

PARSONS  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

PASSENGERS,  of  the  Mayflowei',  ages  of,  53,  note. 

PASTORS,  how  ordained  in  polity  of  Congregationalism,  33,  of¬ 
fice  of,  38. 

Pastors,  of  First  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  39. 

PATENTS,  of  territory  granted  Pilgrims,  79,  Warwick,  80. 
PATUXET,  tribe  of  Indians,  86. 

PEABODY,  William,  husband  of  “Betty  Alden,”  41,  note. 

PIERCE,  John,  75,  79. 

PENN,  William,  Cotton  Mather  advises  capture  of,  54,  note. 
PILGRIMS,  indifference  to  genealogical  records,  11,  first  ac¬ 
knowledgement  of  permanent  value  of  work,  13,  his  sanity  the 
secure  foundation  of  his  fame,  16,  attitude  toward  witchcraft 
persecution,  20,  liberality  compared  with  Puritan  severity,  58, 
107,  108,  109. 

Pilgrims  and  Crusaders,  12. 

Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  9,  31,  58,  107. 

Pilgrim  Colony,  progressive  change  in  religious  belief,  32,  55,  59. 
Pilgrim,  cult  of,  first  beginnings,  13. 

Pilgrim  Church  polity,  compared  with  pure  Congregationalism,  33, 
summary  of,  37. 

Pilgrim  descendants,  errors  as  to  ancestry,  71. 

Pilgrim  descendants,  of  John  Howland  and  John  Tilley,  71,  note, 
77,  note.  111,  112,  113. 

Pilgrim  descendants,  of  John  Alden,  Stephen  Hopkins,  Henry 
Sampson,  George  Soule,  Myles  Standish,  Francis  Eaton,  77, 
note. 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  imagined  returned  to  Plymouth,  11. 

Pilgrim  history,  mythological  and  legendary  elements,  9,  31,  66,  67, 
68,  69,  76,  71. 

PILGRIM  REPUBLIC,  by  John  Abbott  Goodwin,  32. 

PITNEY,  James,  41,  note. 

PLAGUE,  great,  extent  of  among  Indians,  86,  note. 

PLYMOUTH  COLONY,  duration  of,  65,  extent  of,  79,  end  of,  111, 
Plymouth  Colony,  Laws  of,  65,  113. 

Plymouth  County,  97. 

Plymouth,  First  Church  of,  becomes  Unitarian,  39,  44. 

Plymouth  Plantation,  history  of,  by  Governor  William  Bradford, 
loss  and  recovery  of,  99,  note. 

Plymouth  Rock,  identified  by  Elder  Faunce,  28. 

POLITY  OF  PILGRIM  CHURCH,  difficulty  of  determining,  29, 
compared  with  Congregationalism,  33,  34,  35,  summary  of,  37. 
POPULAR  HISTORIANS,  misrepresentation  of  Pilgrims,  11. 
POLYCARP,  15. 

PRATT,  Phineas,  death  of,  41,  note. 

125 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


PRENCE,  Governor  Thomas,  Duxbury,  elected  1637,  95. 

PRINCE,  Rev.  Thomas,  1687,  1738,  author  of  New  England  Chron¬ 
ology,  11,  30,  32,  summary  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  37,  errors,. 
69,  note,  93,  95,  note. 

PHILIP,  KING,  head  of  exposed  at  Plymouth,  barbarous  act  of  In¬ 
crease  Mather,  53,  soon  sold  into  slavery,  54,  55. 

PHIPPS,  Governor,  111. 

PRISONS,  lack  of  in  old  Colony,  100,  note. 

PROPERTY  of  churches,  how  administered,  43,  how  disposed  of  at 
Unitarian  upheaval,  44. 

PROPHESYING,  43. 

“PROPOUNDING  THE  QUESTION,”  43. 

PROVINCETOWN,  12,  16. 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SUGGESTION,  relating  to  witchcraft  delusion, 
by  Sidis  Boris,  M.  D.,  17,  18. 

PUBLIC  WORSHIP,  how  supported,  43. 

PURITAN,  confounded  with  Pilgrim,  9,  31,  58,  107. 

Puritan  influence,  in  legislation  at  Plymouth,  103. 

Puritan  names,  adopted  by  Pilgrim  descendants,  59. 

Puritan  training,  of  Pilgrim  pastors  and  magistrates,  effect  of,  103’. 
Puritan  writers,  identifying  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  31. 

Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth,  58,  107. 

Q 

QUAKERS,  treatment  of  in  Plymouth  Colony  and  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,  9,  57,  107,  109. 

Quakers,  “heathen  worship”  of,  in  Cotton  Mather’s  estimation,  54, 
note. 

S 

“RAGHORN,”  the  black  bull  of  Longfellow’s  poem,  68. 

RANDALL,  Herbert,  84. 

RAYNOR,  Rev.  John,  Plymouth  pastor,  57. 

RECORDS,  of  Plymouth  Colony,  11,  of  Plymouth  Church,  39. 
REEVES  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

REFORMED  Churches,  Robinsons  on,  50. 

RE-ORDINATION,  of  Church  of  England  clergymen,  33. 
REPRESENTATIVE  SYSTEM,  of  government,  beginning  of,  96. 
REVERENCE  FOR  PILGRIMS,  in  early  days  not  greater  than  for 
other  New  England  founders. 

RICE  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

RING,  Mary,  wife  of  John  Morton,  descendants,  77  note. 

ROBBINS,  Rev.  Chandler,  14. 

ROBINSON,  Isaac,  son  of  Pilgrim  pastor,  family,  53,  note,  toward 
Quakers,  109. 

Robinson,  Rev.  John,  Pilgrim  pastor,  28,  30,  32,  49,  on  attitude  of 
Reformers,  Farewell  Address,  liberality,  50,  letter  rebuking 
Standish,  52,  death,  53,  note. 

ROCK,  Plymouth,  attempted  removal  of,  15. 

ROGERS,  John,  note,  83. 

RULING  ELDERS,  office  of,  38. 


126 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


RUNNYMEADE,  12. 

RUSSELL  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

S 

SABBATH,  observance  at  Plymouth,  42,  43. 

Sabbath,  scruple  of  Dr.  Prince  affecting  accurate  statement,  30. 
SACRAMENTS,  right  of  laymen  to  administer,  rule  at  Plymouth, 
34. 

SAINT  FRANCIS  DE  SALES,  Introduction  to  Devout  life,  compar¬ 
ed  with  letters  of  Robinson,  50,  note. 

SALEM,  Massachusetts  Bay,  re-ordination  of  Episcopal  clergymen 
at,  33. 

SAMOSET,  86,  note. 

SAMPSON,  Henry  the  Pilgrim,  descendants,  77,  note. 

SANITY,  of  Pilgrims,  16,  20. 

SASSAMON,  John,  104,  105,  note. 

SCHELLENGER  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

SCHENCK  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

SCHISM,  in  Pilgrim  Church,  27. 

SCOTLAND,  laws  of  against  witches,  17. 

SCRUPLE,  religious,  influencing  historical  investigation,  30. 
SERMONS,  at  Plymouth  on  Forefathers  Day,  51. 

SEVEN  ARTICLES,  of  Church  at  Lyden,  47,  48. 

SEVERITY  OF  LAWS,  at  Plymouth,  cause  of,  58. 

SIDIS,  BORIS,  M.  D.,  Psychology  of  suggestion,  17,  demonophobia. 
19. 

SIXTEENTH  CENTURY,  political  revolution  of,  12. 

SLAVERY,  King  Philip’s  son  sold  into,  55. 

SMITH,  Rev.  Ralph,  39. 

SOCCAGE,  free  and  common,  95. 

“SOCIETY,”  meaning  of  in  congregational  nomenclature,  32,  44. 
SOCIETY  OF  MAYFLOWER  DESCENDANTS,  16. 

SOJOURN  IN  HOLLAND,  liberalizing  effect,  57,  58. 

SOULE,  Beijamin,  59. 

Soule,  Ebenezer,  son  of  Benjamin,  59. 

Soule,  George  the  Pilgrim,  liberality  of,  67,  note,  descendants,  77, 
note. 

Soule,  Jabez,  59. 

Soule,  John,  67,  note. 

Soule,  Sarah,  wife  of  Dependence  Sturtevant,  77,  note. 

Soule,  Zachariah,  59. 

SOUTHWORTH,  Constant,  83. 

SOW  AMS,  85. 

SPOONER,  Deacon,  15,  28. 

STANDISH,  Aleander,  son  of  Myles,  69. 

Standish,  Lorah,  daughter  of  Myles,  70. 

Standish,  Captain  Myles,  legend  of  coutrshlp,  9,  lawsuits,  29,  note, 
rebuked  by  Robinson,  ethics  of  conduct  toward  Indians,  51,  52, 
will  of  52,  53,  descendants,  77,  note,  not  member  of  Pilgrim 
Church,  110.  See  Longfellow  and  Priscilla  Mullins. 

Standish,  Rose,  first  wife  of  Captain  Myles,  68,  70. 


127 


THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  LEGAL  CONSTITUTION 


Standish,  Sarah,  59. 

Standish,  Shadrach,  59. 

“STANDISH  OF  STANDISH,”  novel  by  Jane  Austin,  16,  52,  6^ 
STATE,  Pilgrim,  duration  of,  65,  extent  of,  79,  end  111. 

STITES  FAMILY,  Pilgrim  ancestry,  112. 

S'tites,  John,  first  husband  of  Priscilla  Learning-,  71,  note. 

STOCKS,  reason  for  use  of,  100,  note. 

STRONG  WATER,  laws  regulating  sale,  I001. 

STURTEANT,  Dependence,  77,  note. 

Sturtevant,  Mrs.  Hannah,  27,  note. 

SUCCESSION,  from  Pilgrim  Church,  claimed  by  many,  Z2. 
SUPERSTITION,  freedom  of  Plymouth  compared  with  Massachus¬ 
etts  Bay,  108,  note. 

SYNG.  Philip,  71,  note. 

SYNOD,  authority  of,  49. 

T 

TAX,  minister,  opposition  to,  44,  note. 

TAXATION,  for  support  of  public  worship,  43. 

TEACHING  ELDERS,  office  of,  38. 

THACH,  use  of  forbidden  in  covering  dwellings,  94. 

THAC'HER,  Dr.  James,  historian,  14,  25,  67. 

THEOLOGICAL  OPINIONS,  changes  in  Pilgrim  Church,  25,  55. 
THEOLOGY  of  Pilgrim  Church  In  Holland,  51. 

Theology  of  Old  Testament  adopted  by  Pilgrim  descendants,  59. 
THOMPSON,  John,  41,  note. 

Thompson,  Mary,  wife  of  John,  41,  note. 

TILLEY,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Howland,  40,  note,  70. 

Tilley,  John  the  Pilgrim,  70,  77,  note. 

TTSQUANTUM,  Indian  adviser  to  Pilgrims,  87,  note. 

TITLE  “Pilgrim,”  unknown  to  first  settlers,  12. 

Titles  to  land,  ethics  of  transactions  with  Indians,  83,  88. 
TOBACCO,  use  of  regulated,  102. 

TOMBSTONES,  reliability  of  inscriptions,  70,  71. 

TOTAL  ABSTINENCE  and  Pilgrims,  101. 

TOWN  MEETINGS,  date  of,  31,  note. 

TRANSFERS  OF  LAND,  from  Indians  regulated,  88. 

TREASON,  capital  crime,  102. 

TUPPER,  Ann,  41,  note. 

Tupper,  Thomas,  long  life  of,  41,  note. 

TJ 

UNITARIANISM,  First  Church  of  Pilgrims  embraces  doctrines  of, 
9.  30.  44. 

UNITARIAN  Upheaval,  in  New  England,  25,  28,  44. 

Unitarians,  faith  of  Robinson  claimed  by.  30. 

UNITED  COLONIES  of  New  England,  80. 

UNWRITTEN  LAWS,  of  Plymouth-  Colony,  66. 

V 

VINES,  Richard,  and  great  plague,  86,  note. 

VIRGINIA,  11. 


I 


128 


OF  THE  PILGRIM  STATE 


Virginia  Company,  jurisdiction  of,  75,  76. 

VOTE,  right  of  Suffrage  not  limited  to  church  members,  107. 

W 

W ADDINGTON,  Rev,  Dr.,  32. 

WARRANT,  issued  from  Indian  court,  copy  of,  89,  note. 

WARREN,  Elizabeth,  long  life  of,  40,  note. 

Warren,  Richard  the  rilgrim,  descendants,  77,  note. 

WARWICK  PATENT,  80. 

WASHINGTON,  President,  mission  of  Indians  to,  85,  note. 

“WAST  BOOK”  of  Colonel  John  Gorham,  71,  note. 

WATSON,  George,  41,  note. 

WELCOME,  ship.  Cotton  Mather’s  letter  advising  capture  of,  54, 
note. 

WESSAGUSSETT  (Weymouth),  51. 

WHALEMEN  first  settlers  of  Cape  May,  112. 

WHILDIN  FAMILY,  71,  note. 

Whildin,  Joseph,  husband  of  Hannah  Gorham,  descendants,  71,  note. 
Whildin,  Mary,  wife  of  Josiah  Crowell,  71,  note. 

WHIPPING,  of  Quakers,  109. 

W  rapping  posts  and  stocks,  100,  note. 

WrHITEFIELD,  Rev.  George,  at  Plymouth,  9,  25,  26,  public  con¬ 
fession  of,  27,  note. 

WILLIAMS,  John,  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  65. 

Williams,  Roger,  assistant  pastor  at  Plymouth,  39,  42,  43. 
WICKEDNESS,  Bradford  on  growth  of,  103,  note. 

WINCOB,  John,  75. 

WINSLOW,  Edward  Jr.,  14. 

Winslow,  Governor  Josiah,  on  purchase  of  lands  from  Indians,  84. 
Winslow’s  Brief  Narration,  50. 

WINTER,  first  at  Plymouth,  68. 

WINTHROP,  Governor,  visit  to  Plymouth,  42. 

WITCH,  punishment  of,  103. 

Watches,  trials  of  accused  persons  in  Plymouth  Colony,  108. 
Witches,  marks  of,  17. 

WTITCHCRAFT,  in  Plymouth  Colony,  9,  in  Europe,  Luther’s  opin¬ 
ion,  treatise  of  King  James  I.,  17,  executions  in  seventeenth 
century,  18,  punishment  never  inflicted  in  Plymouth  Colony, 
107,  executions  for  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  108. 
WOLSTENHOLM,  Sir  John,  75. 

WOMEN,  Pilgrim  names  of,  59. 

WRIGHT,  Richard,  41,  note. 

y 

YARMOUTH,  whalers  of,  77,  note. 


129 


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